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CHICAGO
DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS-
— OR THE —
PROGRESS OF FORTY YEARS.
BEING A RECORD OF THE IMPORTANT EVENTS IN THE HISTORY OF CHICAGO,.
AND A DESCRIPTION OF
Its Industries, Professions and Societies,
— TOGETHER WITH —
Biographical Sketches of Prominent Citizens.
— EDITED BY —
'W.A.IRID "WOOID,
Associate Editor "The Western Rural."
CHICAGO:
MILTON GEORGE & COMPANY.
1881.
p-
PREFACE.
The design of this book is to present as fully as possible in a volume of
rhis size — which is as large as a regard for convenience will admit — a
history of the rise and progress of Chicago, and embracing, as an intimate
part of that history, special notice of the industries, professions and societies
of the city, together with short biographies of some of the men who have
aided to make Chicago what it is. The names of many of the prominent
citizens, living and dead, have necessarily been omitted; but there has been
an earnest effort to mention the names of representative men in the various
industries and departments of life, and to avoid the weakening of the
glorious record by introducing biographies through the promptings of
personal friendship, or the solicitation of those interested in able and very
worthy citizens, but who, though no doubt destined to do so, have, as yet,
made no mark of consequence upon the character of Chicago. As strict a
fidelity to truth has been maintained in the writing of the biographical
sketches, and in the estimate of the importance of the subjects, as related to
the progress of Chicago, as there has been in describing the events which
make the history recorded in this volume.
Many difficulties have presented themselves in preparing a volume of
this character. It has been no easy accomplishment to condense the volum-
inous details of history into such a record as would embrace all that the
student of history could profitably, or would wish to, peruse. In a history
like that of Chicago, in which the events previous to those which have
happened within the recollection of some now living, were so meager, and
since which, events have been so numerous and productive of such marvelous
results, that the historian is tempted in the first instance to clothe his limited
material with beautiful surroundings, which at best are but remotely con-
nected with it, and in the other to overestimate occurrences which were
exceedingly interesting to the observer of them, but with the record of
PREFACE.
which posterity will hardly care to be troubled, much difficulty is experi-
enced in attempting to sift the valuable from the useless. In studying the
histories which have already been written of young Chicago, for the pur-
pose of condensing the important facts into a volume like this, much
perplexity has resulted from this cause; but it is hoped that the effort to
make the volume reliable as a record of all the principal events which have
ever occurred upon the spot which the fame of Chicago has made of
interest to all the world, has been entirely successful.
Perhaps the most formidable difficulty that has had to be overcome ,
however, has been the general apathy of the distinguished citizens whose
biographical sketches are given, in furnishing data for the sketches.
Unnecessary trouble has been given the Editor in the majority of cases, but,
nevertheless, a complete biography is presented in every case in which it is
attempted; and, perhaps, under the circumstances, and in view of the fact
that prominent citizens have sometimes been asked to pay a large price
for biographical sketches in other works, the Editor may be pardoned for
saying that no one whose name is mentioned in "CHICAGO AND ITS
DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS," has ever paid anything for having it so
mentioned. The aim of the work is higher than that.
So far as the biographies are concerned, some of them could not be
omitted in a volume of this character, and have it so much as approach to
completeness, while others are inserted by way of acknowledgment of the
meritorious part that has been played by the subjects in the advancement
of the industries, professions or societies with which they are connected.
Thus is briefly outlined what has been attempted, and the volume is
sent forth among a people who are proud of the record they have made,
and among those who would like to read of their grand achievements, as
well as of some of the men who have made them, with the hope that it
may prove satisfactory to all. D. W. W.
CHICAGO, ILL.
CHICAGO
AND ITS
DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION.
The history of Chicago, up to the present time, will always possess
something of the character of romance to the reader. So rapid and power-
ful has been its growth amidst conditions which originally were not only
not wholly favorable, but largely adverse, that even those who have been
witnesses to its development are wrapped in wonderment as they behold
its beauty and contemplate its commercial importance. From an appar-
ently worthless waste to an elegant city of over half a million of people, is
naturally a long step, and one which, under ordinary circumstances, would
be expected to cover centuries. Chicago has spanned the distance in fifty
years; and while the maturing influence of age is yet to temper her youth-
ful spirit, and touch the rude spots to be found here and there, with
symmetry and elegance, she is already beautiful to behold and lovely to
contemplate.
Not only does the great West, so filled with marvels, look upon her
metropolis as the greatest of them all, and view with pride the constantly
fresh progress which it is achieving, but the nation long since began to
dispute the West's exclusive title to Chicago ; and the older sections, stifl-
ing the natural jealousy which uncommon success on the part of a younger
rival is sure to arouse, heartily join in admiration of the country's Western
capital. The broad streets lined with palatial edifices, the beautiful parks
and boulevards, grand already, but only buds of future elegant bloom, and
the unrivaled enterprise of the citizens, are admired not more by the West
than the East, not more ardently by the North than the South. And what
feeling could be more natural? How can even the world fail to have an
interest in this monument to human pluck and enterprise? How can its
affections be kept from going out toward the city that it has built by con-
6 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
tributing from every nook and corner of civiliz ation, muscle and mind ?
Chicago is a picture of the civilized world in miniature; not a section is
unrepresented ; not a race is left off the painting. And in return for the
world's love and admiration for Chicago, Chicago loves and admires
the world. While its people are devoted admirers of their great city, and
are bound to it by the tenderest ties of affection, the old home among the
hills of New England, in the beautiful valley of the Mohawk, amidst
the gardens of the South, or across the ocean, is never forgotten in Chicago.
The flags of the world float on the breezes that fan the great city; the
tongues of the world are spoken in its homes and business marts, and
the manners of the nations pass before the vision like a steadily moving
panorama.
The anticipations of the Chicagoan as to the future greatness and
glory of his city, have often been derided as unreasonable, and as the out-
growth of an inordinate vanity. Such an estimate of them, however, must
be regarded, in view of existing facts, as the harmless effervescence of envy
or the result of ignorance. Chicago cannot help being great. She is>
surrounded and filled with the natural elements of greatness — greatness as
a commercial center and metropolis, in enterprise, literature, science, gov-
ernment, and in strengthening the ties that bind mankind in a universal
brotherhood. The center of a vast and growing railroad system, which
embraces in its intricate network of rails the entire continent, the products
of our broad prairies and fertile valleys pay it tribute on their way to the
Eastern seaboard, and the Western-bound merchandise from Eastern
factories makes, in one way and another, its contribution to the increasing
wealth of the city. As the immense elevators, filled to overflowing the
year round, the rumbling of the constantly coming and going freight trains,
and the enormous business at the stockyards, attest, this source of income
alone is quite sufficient to give to the city prominence and prosperity. But
such activity in those marts of trade, styled stock, grain and produce markets,
very naturally stimulates every branch of legitimate business, and the result
is found in the hum of factory machinery, and in the mammoth stores which
the extensive commerce of the city makes a necessity. The oldest and
largest of Eastern commercial houses have seen the necessity of acknowledg-
ing all that we have claimed for Chicago, and have already established
themselves here. Others must do likewise, or suffer the loss of all the trade
west of us, and a very large portion of it east and south. This market is so
easily accessible, and furnishing, as it does, advantages equal, and sometimes
superior, to those furnished in the East, buyers in large numbers have
already learned, and many more are rapidly learning, that their interests
unmistakably point them away from New York and Boston and to the
wholesale markets of Chicago.
O
The very best enterprise of the nation and the world has made Chicago
what we have thus described her to be. Thriftlessness cannot build up a
magnificent city and an extensive commerce upon a miry marsh or a bleak
prairie. The men who first came to the spot where Chicago now stands,
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 7
were brave men filled with energy and the spirit of enterprise. Had they
not been, they never would have come. The then present had nothing to
offer them but the companionship of the treacherous Indian, the song of
the lake waves rolling upon the shore, • muddy stream and an unbroken,
trackless prairie. It was to the future, lighted up with such hope as is born
of courage, perseverance and enterprising industry, that the first settlers of
Chicago were compelled to look for the reward for temporary sacrifice and
personal exposure to danger. The victory could only be won by one con-
tinuous siege of untamed nature, which would extend far into the coming
years, through all which the valiant soldier must be in the heat of the
battle or sleeping upon his arms. The early settler realized this; but he
had enlisted to do it. That he did his duty faithfully his achievements are
enduring testimony, and posterity will never cease to keep his name chiseled
in bold relief upon the walls and monuments of the city whose foundations
rest upon his courage, industry, enterprise and fidelity.
From the day of the pioneer until now, the same enterprise that first
led the white man to step his foot upon this territory, and to build here in
his imagination first a village and then a city, has led to this spot the vast
majority who have come, and actuated them after they arrived here. The
East has given us her best business ability and her best energy. The cities
of the old world have awakened to realize that they have met with irrep-
arable loss in the emigration of representative citizenship, and Chicago has
awakened to find that the loss has been her gain. Thus the foundation of
a steady, progressive and determined community has been laid, and in the
calm and sunshine, as naturally would be expected, it pushes steadily for-
ward toward the grandest achievements, and in the storm, or even amidst
the flames, it maintains unflinching courage and a fixed determination not
only to be great, but to be the greatest.
Is it not entirely reasonable, considering her diversified population, that
Chicago shall realize her own most sanguine expectations? The repre-
sentative energetic American is here; England, the mother-land, has
contributed the sterling stateliness of English character; she has given to
Chicago, men who are acquainted with the merits and defects of a model
monarchial government; men fresh from her halls of science and from her
libraries of standard literature; Ireland has furnished a love for liberty,
which will never cease to burn to the world's advantage, while the Irish
heart harbors the sentiment and Irish lips sing:
"The harp that once through Tara's halls
The soul of music shed,
Now hangs as mute on Tara's walls
As if that soul had fled."
Scotland, the land of romantic hills and poetic dells, has sent the metal
of Bruce and Wallace, and the playful genius of her immortal Burns; from
Germany has come maturity of thought, persevering industry, loyalty to
republicanism and the mellowing influence of music; France has thrown
into the midst of this progressive community, an impetuosity which is sure
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
to result in general advancement, if rightly directed, and a gentility which
is softening to character and elevating in influence; and thus the world has
contributed something of all that it feels and all that it knows, to amalga-
mate and mature here into a beautiful whole. Strange, indeed, would it be,
if a community favored with such a variety of thought and experience,
should not be able to deduce the approach to perfection in all that an
American community could expect or desire.
CHAPTER II.
OLD CHICAGO.
There is so much of interest and brilliant development crowded into
the history of Chicago for less than half a century, that they charm the
mind into forgetfulness of the fact that the place has something of a history
previous to the beginning of the marvelous career which has distinguished
it since its christening as a municipality. Nor is it at all strange that this is
so. The stars, bright and beautiful at night, are paled into total obscurity
by the glitter of the noonday sun. If Chicago were not the attractive and
important metropolis that it is, adorned by architectural beauty, which is
among the finest in the world, brilliant with the delicate designs of taste
and art, and stately in commercial and political influence, the comparatively
meager events which make the history of old Chicago, would always
possess a fascinating interest to the student. The present would not then
be chained to itself in contemplation and admiration; the restless mind
would find time to explore the wild site upon the lake shore when the
Indian's footsteps made the only impress upon the sand and among
the grass, that human being had ever made, and would be delighted to study
such footprints until the eyelids drooped in weariness. The mind must be
entertained. In any line of thought that it adopts it will penetrate to the
utmost, unless fascinated to pause by enough sublimity to more than fill it.
If it is an America that a Columbus seeks, the mind will be satisfied with
nothing short, unless in the search for it, it finds something so far surpassing
what it has conceived it to be, that it pauses to admire, and then consents
to be satisfied.
Thus in the search over these broad prairies, and back through the
years, for the novel and entertaining, the mind pauses in astonishment at
the sight of this massive and beautiful city — a monument to human fore-
sight and enterprise such as the world never before reared in the short
space of fifty years. It presents itself in the character of a miraculous
creation, and thus almost forbids the thought that there was anything
anterior. Chicago means to the average observer an elegantly constructed
city, with wealth and the height of social and commercial prosperity, and
nothing more. Never is a bleak prairie permitted to mar the present
beauty, or to add romance to the city's birth and subsequent record; never
does the moaning or the harsh howling of the winds creeping or rushing
over a startlingly wild region, nor the warwhoop of the savage charm
io CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
the imagination into bidding the enchanted eyes to forget for a moment
what the present is. A half a century alone has left its impress upon
Chicago; beyond that is a blank as dark and unfathomable as non-existence!
This is the character in which Chicago presents itself to the careless
observer and superficial student. The average mind is satisfied to linger
in the shadow of present greatness and grandeur, and to feed itself upon
what it sees and what the yet living can bear testimony of. The present is
the noon that pales the stars of anterior history.
But the early settlers of Chicago and the most careful students of
history love to turn their backs upon the glitter and to observe the dim,
lengthening shadows of the early days; to worship even at the daybreak
of civilization and Christianity upon the spot, in which the name of Pierre
Marquette is traceable upon the cloudy horizon. Marquette was the
morning star of civilization and future greatness, that glistened amidst
the wildness and gloom that overshadowed this site more than twa
hundred years ago. He was a Jesuit missionary who sailed from France
for Canada in 1637, and who on a missionary journey from Quebec to the
Mississippi, halted, in the month of July, 1663, at "Chicag&ux," or
"Chikajo," which was the early 'orthography of the name.
What more interesting conjectures can employ the mind than those as
to the thoughts of this devoted man, who relying upon the protection of the
Power to whose service he had consecrated himself, sat down on this prairie
to rest, and to commune with wild nature, animate and inanimate, and with
nature's Architect and Sovereign? Did the least glint of the brilliancy of
the present light up the weird surroundings? Did he behold the shadow
of a single spire among the hundreds now pointing to the skies, stretching
out into the faint past to the spot where he sat? Did he hear the echo of a
single footstep among the half million that two centuries hence were to-
make their discord upon the pavements of a great city the music of civiliza-
tion? We cannot tell. The same natural advantages presented themselves
to him that were presented to those who in after years came and saw that
they were sufficient to insure the grand results which are now so wonderful
to behold. The same disadvantages presented themselves to discourage
him in brilliant anticipation that were presented tq those who have made
Chicago. But we love to go back through the centuries and sit down with
the good old man, the pioneer representative of civilization in Chicago, and
permit imagination to indulge in its vagaries as to his thoughts of the future
of his wild resting place.
But while it is interesting to allow fancy to paint the mind of Mar-
quette as he listened for the first time to the voice of nature in a region so far
from civilized settlement, and beheld the broad expanse of territory, which
then nothing but the keenest foresight could have predicted possible of settle-
ment by people from the haunts of civilization, it is more interesting to know
that after leaving the romantic spot, and visiting the French who were then
quite numerous in the region of the Mississippi, and doing what he could
to enlist them in the cause to which he was consecrated, he returned to
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. n
"Chicagoux," in the Autumn of 1665, and built a place of worship and a
residence on the North Branch of Chicago river. The visitor thus became
the pioneer civilized settler of Chicago. The Indian treated him with
leniency, and so far as known with courtesy. The beneficial effects of his
teachings upon the savages, however, were not permanent, if indeed they
were observable, except it was to be seen in tb,e fact that they permitted
him to live in peace and safety among them, for a few months, and then
to depart to meet death and to find a lonely grave in the woods of
Michigan, on his way back to Canada. We wish that in compiling this
history, we might leave the Indian in such a favorable light as he left
himself when Marquette left him. But his ferocious nature afterward
developed, as it is now well understood, and he was treacherous, brutish
and an implacable enemy to advancing civilization. To scalp and devas-
tate are the most artistic of Indian amusements, and the eccentricity of
savage character is manifested in denying itself the enjoyment of such
pastime, whenever favorable opportunity offers, and not in embracing it.
The Indian of the time of which we write, as the development of history
will show, was not different from the Indian of now.
With the temporally settlement of Marquette, therefore, we must date
the dawn of civilization upon this spot. There are traces of French occu-
pancy of the place prior and subsequent to this time, but they are not more
distinct than that a fort was sometime erected here and subsequently
abandoned. It is well settled history that the French, who were in
possession of Canada prior to and at the time of Marquette's visit, had
determined to possess themselves of a large portion of what is now the
United States. Their plan was to sweep southward along the Mississippi
valley to New Orleans, and then to reach out eastward. To aid in the
accomplishment of this object a fort was, no doubt, built at this point. The
fort could have been built only by the French, and that there was a fort is
evidenced by the words of the treaty which General Wayne whipped the
Indians into making with the United States, after the Revolutionary war,
and which, as signed at Greenville, Ohio, contained the following descrip-
tion of land ceded by the Indians: — "One piece of land six miles square,
at the mouth of Chekago river, emptying into the southwest end of Lake
Michigan, where a fort formerly stood." The fort was abandoned when
Canada was transferred to the English, as the result of the victories of
Wolfe, in 1759.
Our history must start, however, with the settlement of Marquette as
the only definite thing known about the first occupancy of Chicago by
civilized man. Two French explorers, Hennepin and LaSalle, afterward
visited the place, but with that exception, so far as we can determine, it was
left to the undisputed possession of various tribes of Indians, who made it
a favorite rendezvous down to 1796. Then civilization was again reflected
in the dark skin of a San Domingo negro, bearing the formidable name of
Jean Baptiste Point au Sable. This adventurer has been facetiously called
the first "white" settler of Chicago, but a regard for the truth and an aclmi-
12 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
ration for courage and devotion to duty, will hardly permit such an uncertain
light to dim the luster of Marquette's title to being the pioneer of civiliza-
tion. In view of what the character of the men who have built Chicago
has been and is- — daring, energetic, and emblematic of consecration to duty,
to self and humanity — it is not interesting to accord the honor of being the
first settler to one who came and saw, but did not conquer. All that Jean
Baptiste Point au Sable did for Chicago, was to build a hut and then desert
it. He was the type of modern tramphood — aimless, shiftless, useless.
Marquette came for a purpose, braved danger to accomplish it, and left
only when duty called him to another field.
Following Jean Baptiste Point au Sable, came a Frenchman named
LaMai, who converted his predecessor's hut to his own use, and faintly
foreshadowed the character of the future Chicagoan by showing enough
enterprise to engage in trade with all the energy that his surroundings
would sustain, and to hold his possessions until he could sell them at what,
in his estimation, was a remunerative consideration. LaMai was a much
more desirable ancestor of the present than his predecessor was ; but even
he can hardly excite our pride, or much of our admiration. He was deficient
enough in strength of character to yield his vantage ground of becoming
famous as the man who came and stayed, to John Kinzie, who was in the
employ of the American Fur Company at St. Joseph, Michigan — the presi-
dent of which was John Jacob Astor — and who purchased of LaMai his
"claim" — which was only that of a squatter — and completing the claim, and
transforming the cabin into a comfortable dwelling, as it would beregaided
in a frontier settlement, removed his family from St. Joseph in 1804.
Previous to this the government had erected a fort, called Fort Dearborn.
In 1803 it became evident that a necessity existed for the presence of the
government in this wild region. The American Fur Company, which had
large interests at stake, and which were constantly exposed to the whims
of the large number of Indians inhabiting and visiting the locality, was of
sufficient importance, without taking anything else into consideration, to
demand protection. Accordingly it was determined to erect a fort. St.
Joseph was the first site selected, but the Indians objected, and the govern-
ment finally decided to establish itself on the land ceded to it by the
Greenville treaty. In accordance with this decision Captain John
Whistler, who was in command of a company of soldiers at Detroit, Michi-
gan, was ordered to move his command to the portage of Chicago, and to
build and garrison the fort. Captain Whistler at once detailed James S.
Swearington, a lieutenant, to conduct the soldiers across Michigan to
Chicago, while he and his wife, his son William — also a lieutenant — and
his wife, started for the same destination on board a United States vessel,
named the Tracy, arriving on the Fourth of July. Two thousand Indians
were present to witness the arrival of the vessel, which Dr. Blanchard says
they called the "big canoe with wings."
The erection of the fort was at once begun, and before cold weather
set in, comfortable quarters were provided for this little uniformed advance of
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 13
governmental authority. Two block houses occupying respectively the
southeast and northwest corners of the grounds enclosed, constituted the
defenses. Besides these there was a log building, two stories high, sided
with rough boards which had been riven from logs. In this was stored
the goods designed for free distribution among the Indians. The garrison
of Fort Dearborn consisted of one captain, one second lieutenant, one ensign,
four sergeants, one surgeon and fifty-four privates.
The morning of civilization seemingly now begins to dawn upon
Chicago. The great civilizer, the sword — in the world's history always
greater than the pen — is now flashing in the sunlight that warms the wild
grasses of the prairie into life and charms the waters into laughter. United
States soldiers are inside the fort, and John Kinzie and his family are outside.
CHAPTER III.
CHICAGO FROM 1804 TO 1825.
For about eight years from the completion of Fort Dearborn, there
was nothing of a very marked character to vary the monotony of the life
within and without the fort. The number of traders gradually increased,
and peace reigned triumphant between the red native and the white settler.
With the knowledge of the treachery of Indian character, however, possessed
by the majority of the settlers, it is not likely that any anticipation of
immediate future greatness of the place ever cheered them on to the
accomplishment of more than could be appropriated to the present. It is
altogether likely that they were constantly looking for the appearance of
clouds to shade the sunshine, and listening for the first muttering of the
storm that should swallow up the calm. John Kinzie knew what the
Indian was, and that means that he watched for outbreak and battle every
day and every hour. Others, if they had not obtained a like knowledge
from experience, must have obtained it from those who had. If dreams of
perfect security possessed the soul of any one, however, they were rudely
crushed by the reality of Indian opposition to the occupancy of these
prairies by civilization and commerce, which was developed in the Spring
of 1812 in the attack of the savages upon one of the outlying houses, and
the scalping of the only male resident. From this attack, they descended
toward the fort with the intention of making an attack upon it, but con-
sidering discretion the better part of valor, wisely concluded not to arouse
the garrison. During this year the United States became involved in a
war with Great Britain, and the fort at Chicago was so distant from head-
quarters, and the English, it was believed, having incited the Indians to
harrass the settlers upon the frontier, which the soldiers could not possibly
prevent, it was deemed expedient to abandon the fortification and leave the
country to the savages. Orders were issued, and received by the commander on
the seventh of August, 1812, to that effect. Captain Heald, then in command,
was instructed to distribute the goods not needed by the soldiers, among the
Indians, which he informed the Indians he would do, on condition that the
Pottawatomies would furnish a safe escort for the command to Fort Wayne,
promising an additional reward upon arriving at that destination. The Indians
readily acceded to the terms. As a part of the goods to be distributed, how-
ever, consisted of liquors and ammunition, Mr. Kinzie prevailed upon Cap-
tain Heald to destroy what portion of these was not needed by the troops,
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 15
which should have embraced a total destruction of the liquors. Liquor has
entered largely into our Indian difficulties. It has been the breeder of discord,
misunderstanding and bloodthirstiness frequently on the part of soldiers,
agents and Indians alike, and the fumes of rum rise from many a pool of
blood, and from many a skeleton, on the plains.
We have/ no wish to excuse the Indian, and no intention to gloss his
real character, but while we would hold him to a full responsibility for his
cruelty and vindictiveness, we hold up the man who would tempt him to
overreach his own natural instincts, to public execration and scorn. While
rum flows through our valleys, over our plains and down our mountain
sides, in a red and blighting stream, it will be questionable if either the
sword or the Bible can do much to settle our Indian difficulties in the in-
terests of peace and civilization. It is not enough to keep liquor from the
Indian — it must be kept from the white man who has to do with him. The
policy of keeping all we want to drink ourselves, and destroying the balance
-—which was the policy adopted by Captain Heald — is productive of no
good, unless the conception of our wants is that we do not need any.
The liquor which was not required by the troops on this occasion, was,
therefore, by the advice of Mr. Kinzie, emptied into the lake, the waters
of which were eagerly drank by the savages, who declared the mixture
almost equal to grog. On the thirteenth of August, the blankets, calicoes
and provisions were distributed as agreed upon, but the deliberate violation
of the agreement made with them only the previous day, which agreement
virtually stipulated, of course, that the liquors and ammunition should also
be distributed, did not have a tendency to soothe the Indians or to command
their confidence. The utter disregard by the government of its contracts with
these people, which has been one of the distinguishing features of our course
toward them for at least a half century, thus began very early in the nation's
history. On the day following the distribution, the Indians assembled in
council and complained bitterly of the violation of the contract, which no
doubt had better been violated than kept, but it never should have been
made; and we have little doubt, that if it had never been made, no threats
would have been uttered at a council held on the fourteenth of August,
although it is not certain that the violation of the agreement had anything
at all to do with the subsequent massacre. That might have happened,
notwithstanding any treatment that might have been accorded the savage.
On the fifteenth of August the soldiers left the fort, and the military
party intending to march round the head of the lake, started southward, but
had only proceeded a mile and a half when they were attacked by the
Indians, and although succeeding in dislodging the attacking party — which
was concealed behind a ridge of sand — the Indians were too numerous to
be effectually routed, and a desperate battle ensued. All the fiendishness
of the Indian heart was aroused, and twenty-six soldiers, twelve militiamen,
two women and a dozen children, were murdered and scalped, to satisfy
the thirst for blood. It was a terrible position for even soldiers to be in.
Out in a vastness of wildness, a wilderness of prairie, hundreds of miles
:6 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
from civilization, and faced by death at the hands of bloodthirsty brutes in
human form, who were unmoved by pity and certainly unawed by the
little handful of uniformed victims, the situation was terrifically desperate*
It was only the bravest of the brave that could have ever made a stand in
defense of self and the helpless of the little company. The very first attack
proclaimed the utter hopelessness of ultimate victory on the part, of the
soldiers. The passions of the savage enemy, as unrestrained and unre-
strainable as the winds sweeping over the plains, were blazing with
consuming frenzy, and the large numbers which these passions were urging
on to the work of extermination, must have paled the least glint of hope
into the deepest gloom of despair. But although the certainty of defeat'
was plain, and the possibility of a single life being spared could be hoped
for only through the mysterious intervention of Providence, the soldiers
looked death bravely in the face, and fought with a bravery that no army
encouraged by the expectation of an early victory, could have surpassed.
They proved themselves worthy to represent the valor which was exhibited
during the trying years of the revolution, and set an example which the
American soldier has always imitated on the field of battle.
If, however, it was a dismal hour to the brave hearts of the men, can
the feelings of the women and children be imagined ? While it is true that
they had the advantage of being accustomed to scenes which the mothers,
sisters and children of our homes would shrink from, and of experiences
under which our loved ones would sink, the wild whoop of the infuriated
Indian on that eventful morning, crashed through the soul as the herald of
approaching death, and must have half paralyzed the senses of even women
who had been brave enough to attempt to carry the sweet sunshine of
woman's gentleness to brighten the cloud of barbarism lowering over the
plains. Imagination is not sufficiently elastic to paint the feelings of
the women and children of that little party, and language is too weak to
describe even the imperfect picture which it is able to outline. Perhaps it
was merciful that the agony was of short duration, and that the ghasth
sight of twelve scalped children and two women, so soon told that they
had passed beyond a knowledge of the conflict .and from beneath the
frightful burden of apprehension.
Captain Heald saw plainly that a continuation of the battle meant
annihilation of his command, and that surrender could not result more disas-
trously, while, perhaps, if surrendering, their lives might be saved. With
a view to securing a cessation of hostilities, and an assurance of protection,
he withdrew his troops, and a parley ensued, which resulted in his surrender
to the Indians, upon condition that the lives of the party should be spared.
The soldiers were now marched back to the fort, which was plundered and
burned by the Indians the next day. A few days after the massacre the
Kinzie family were sent to Detroit. Sometime after this the prisoners
were ransomed, and thus ended the first attempt of the United States
government to establish itself at Chicago. Instead of advancing civilization
it seemed to have retarded it, inasmuch as for four years the spot was entirely
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 17
•jiven over to the savages, even the fur traders keeping away from it. In
1816, however, the fort was rebuilt, under thft direction of Captain Bradley.
Sometime after the reconstruction of the fort, Mr. Kinzie returned, and in
1818 there were only two families outside the fort — those of Mr. Kinzie
and Antoine Oulimette, a French trader. Both of these families were
located on the North Side. In 1818 Gurclon S. Hubbard, visited the
place, as the agent of the American Fur Company, and is still a resident of
the city. J. B. Beaubien arrived the same year. In 1823 the outside
population was increased by the advent of Archibald Claybourne. Certainly
there was as yet but slight foundation for the future Chicago. Almost
any body would at this time, or even four years later — the time that Major
Long visited the place on a government exploring expedition — have shared
Major Long's views of the prospects of the spot. He said in his report to the
government that it afforded no inducement to the settler; and apparently he
was right. But for several years the project of connecting lake Michigan
with the Mississippi, by a canal from the lake to the Illinois river, had been
agitated. In 1814 the matter was before the thirty-seventh Congress. In
1818 it was brought to the attention of the State legislature by Governor
Bond. Governor Coles, his successor, also urged the importance of the
project in 1822; and the year following a Board of Inspectors wai consti-
tuted, who made a tour of inspection during the year 1824. Congress in the
meantime having authorized the State to make a survey through the public
lands, five routes were surveyed by the State Commissioners, and in 1825
the legislature chartered the Illinois and Michigan Canal Company. But
no one desiring to take stock in the enterprise, the act of incorporation was
finally repealed, and Congress again took up the matter. The result now
was that Congress — in i82y — granted to the State every alternate section in a
belt of land five miles wide on each side of the proposed canal, upon con-
dition that not more than five years should elapse before the beginning of
the work and that the canal should be completed within twenty years. In
case of failure to comply with the conditions the State was to be held liable
for all moneys received from land sold. The State accepted the conditions,
and although the canal was not actually commenced until 1836, the con-
ception of the enterprise and the action of Congress was the beginning ot
the foundation of this great and growing metropolis.
i8
CHAPTER IV.
THE TOWN OF CHICAGO.
The State having decided to construct the canal, under the terms im-
posed by Congress, the Canal Commissioners, appointed by the State, in
1829 sent James Thompson to make a survey of the lake terminus — the
present site of Chicago — and which, though not originally included in the
State boundaries, Congress had previously added, thus giving the State
this elegant portage. The surveyor's map, however, which was prepared
in the following year, embraced only an area of three eighths of a square
mile, and included the territory on the west of State street, bounded by
Madison, Desplaines and Kinzie streets, the land east of State street being
reserved by the government. At this time there were seven families
outside the fort, and of these Mr. Kinzie, Dr. Wolcott, Mr. Beaubien and
John Miller are the only ones whose names have been handed down in
history. It will thus be seen that the early growth of the town was slow,
and upon a casual observation, it would appear astonishingly so. There
were natural advantages — which have been recognized since, and by most
of those who came early enough to be called pioneers in the establishment
of the town of Chicago, were recognized then — and the prospect of a canal
linking the wild spot to civilization promised additional advantages, the
character of which could not certainly be misunderstood. But after all, the
disadvantages would naturally outweigh the advantages in the average mind,
which is not as acute as the individual minds which were the first to glow in
the darkness of fifty years ago ; and especially was it difficult for those who had
never visited the spot, to conceive that any importance could attach to it,
present or prospective, in the face of the official report of Major Loner.
The spot was a picture of desolateness as perfect as the artist's brush could
trace upon the canvas, and as disfiguring a blot as nature ever suffered to
mar the fairness of her face. The larger portion of the site was but verv
little above the level of the lake, and was subject to frequent inundations.
Much of it was so marshy as to be utterly unfit and unsafe for travel,
and this disagreeable characteristic was prominent in some of the streets
even after the city had grown to respectable proportions. Men can now
be found who saw Chicago when, in their estimation, the whole site was
not worth a hundred dollars, and they thought that they were far seeino-
men, too. A resident of the West relates that when a boy he came from
his home in Joliet to visit Chicago, and hearing a man predict that the
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 19
river would sometime be made a harbor for shipping, and that Chicago was
destined to be a great city, hastened home to induce his father to give him
a hundred dollars to purchase land. But the father laughing at what he
was pleased to term a child's air castle, refused, and a colossal fortune was
lost. There were many like this man, and they developed in large numbers
even after immigration, a few years later, had fully set in. But the American
nation and the world has reason to be thankful that there were those who
could see beauty and brightness behind the clouds, and treasure in the
repulsive mire — men who believed in the future of Chicago, some of them
having lived to witness a perfect realization of their most sanguine hopes.
The Indians, too, must be charged with having a great deal to do
with retarding the early development of the place. In 1828 they were
particularly restless and threatening, and the murder by them of several
immigiants naturally had the effect of stopping immigration. In 1831, how-
ever, the law of the survival of the fittest began fo make itself felt, and the
Indian received preliminary notice, in the increase of immigration, to move
on wes' ward. The year began well and ended better. In the Spring of
this year Cook county was organized, and then comprised the entire
territoiy of the present counties of Cook, Du Page, Lake, McHenry, Will
and Iroquois. The resident citizens at and about the time the county was
organized, were James-Kinzie, Alexander Robinson, William Lee, Elijah
Wentworth, Robert A. Kinzie, Samuel Miller, John Miller, Mark Beau-
bien, J. B. Beaubicn, G. Kercheval, Dr. E. Harmon, James Harrington,
James Walker, Billy Caldwell, an Indian chief and interpreter, Mr. McGee,
the blacksmith, Colonel R. J. Hamilton and Mr. Bourisso, an Indian trader.
Samuel Miller, James Walker and Gholson Kercheval were the first
County Commissioners, and were sworn into office by J. S. C. Hogan,
Justice of the Peace. Archibald Claybourne, who was identified with the
place from his first appearance, although not really permanently settled
until some years after, was the first County Treasurer. During the year
Colonel R. J. Hamilton acted as Treasurer in addition to performing the duties
of Judge of Probate, Recorder and County Clerk.
The County Commissioners soon found it necessary to regulate the
charges at the taverns, and the following rates were established :
Each half pint of wine, rum or brandy. . . . . . . . 25 cents.
Each pint do . . " . . 37^ "
half pint of gin
pint do
gill of whisky
half pint do 12
pint do iS
For each breakfast and supper. 25
" dinner. - . 37
" horse feed. 25
Keeping horse one night 50
Lodging for each man per night. 12
For cider or beer, one pint. ...... . . 6
" " one quart. 12
Elijah Wentworth and Samuel Miller were the first licensed tavern
keepers. Samuel Miller, Robert A. Kinzie and B. Laughton were the
2o CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
first licensed merchants. James Kinzie was the first auctioneer, and Mark
Beaubien was authorized to operate the first ferry across the river. Mr.
Beaubien filed a bond, v,ith James Kinzie as surety, in the sum of two
hundred dollars, conditioned that he should charge only those who lived
outside of Cook county for ferriage. It is related that the pioneer ferry-
man had a weakness for fast horses, and that owning two, he gave them so
much attention that travel across the river was seriously impeded at times,
which state of affairs caused the Commissioners to issue the rather stringent
order, that he should ferry the citizens of Cook county "from daylight in
the morning until dark, without stopping."
The population was now gradually increasing and business was
enlarging. P. F. W. Peck arrived from New York about the first of June,
with a stock of goods, and built a log store which he opened and occupied
until the following Fall. Walker & Co., Brewster, Hogan & Co., Nicholas
Boilvin and Joseph Naper are found listed with the merchants. Many
other changes, which it would scarcely be profitable to record, were
naturally occurring, and every month witnessed an increased development.
In the month of June the fort was vacated by the soldiers, who were then
under command of Major Fowle, and in the Fall it was occupied by some
four hundred emigrants, who remained there during the following severe
Winter. The larger proportion of the residents outside also went into the
fort during the Winter, with a view to securing greater safety and also for
companionship. The only communication which these people had with
the outside world was effected by a half-breed Indian who visited Niles,
Michigan, every two weeks. The Winter evenings were enlivened by
dances, and discussions in a debating society. A religious meeting was held
once a week under the leadership of Mr. and Mrs. Mark Noble, Jr., and
Mrs. R. J. Hamilton.
In the month of September about four thousand Indians congregated
here to receive a government annuity, and after being paid, a scene of
drunkenness, debauchery and general villainy ensued, which leaves the
mind in serious doubt which was the greater brute, the Indian or some of
his civilized brothers. The act of selling the savages liquor, thus endanger-
ing the life of every one in the settlement, is evidence of sufficient depravity
to cause a blush of shame on every manly cheek, but that in itself rises
almost to respectability by the side of the fact, that the Indians were first
induced to purchase goods, and were then made drunken, that those who
sold the goods might steal them. It is a mystery what ever became of such
a class of people. They have no descendants in the Chicago of to-day.
Chicago honor and honesty glitter like the sun at its zenith, and command
the admiration of the world. Upon the whole, however, the year 1831
was one of whose record Chicago will always feel proud, and we leave its
events to contemplate what succeeds.
The beginning of 1832 is memorable for the scare which the advance
of Black Hawk, with five hundred warriors, upon the Rock river country,
gave to the settlement. Numbers whose houses had been burned and stock
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 21
captured, came from the Rock river settlements for safety, and by the
middle of May about seven hundred people were within the fort. The
majority of these, however, were women and children, whose male protec-
tors had gone further south with their stock, hoping to find safer locations.
The Indians at Chicago were at first inclined to join with Black Hawk, but
finally decided to send out a hundred warriors to oppose him, if it was desired.
A force of twenty-five men was organized, and under command of Captain
J. B. Brown, and accompanied by Captain Joseph Naper and Colonel R. J.
Hamilton, they started to scour, the country. They formed a union with
three thousand militia, and a detachment of regular troops from Rock Island,
under command. of General Atkinson, and this combined force finally routed
the Indians, and took Black Hawk prisoner on the twenty-seventh of
August.
General Winfield Scott, having been ordered to take part in this war,
came West, but did not arrive until the war was about ended. His com-
ing, however, was of great benefit to Chicago, for upon his return he
gave such a brilliant account of the place that a general interest was
created, and Congress very soon made the first appropriation for the im-
provement of the harbor.
Among the arrivals in 1832 were Philo Carpenter, J. S. Wright, G.
W. Snow and Dr. Maxwell, all gentlemen whose names afterward became
interwoven with the history of Chicago. The first building was erected
on the public square — the land now occupied by the city and county build-
ings— this year, and was an estray pen. In the following year a log jail
was built on the northwest corner of the square. The population was
now increasing very rapidly, and the government saw the necessity of at
once entering upon the work of improving the harbor. Colbert and
Chamberlin, in their "Chicago and the Great Conflagration," say: — "At
that time the main channel was narrower than now, and instead of running
in an almost straight line into the lake, it turned short to the southward,
round the fort, to a point near the present foot of Madison street, and then
connected with the lake over a bar of sand and gravel, the water on
which was about fifteen yards wide, and only a few inches in depth. A
channel was cut through the bank running straight out into the lake, an
embankment formed to cut off the water from the former channel, a pier
run out to a short distance on the north side of the new mouth, and a
lighthouse built to mark the entrance to the new-formed harbor."
The town of Chicago was organized in 1833, and the following is the
record of proceedings:
"At a meeting of the citizens of Chicago, convened pursuant to public
notice given according to the statute for incorporating towns, T. J. V.
Owen was chosen President, and E. S. Kimberly was chosen Clerk. The
oaths were then administered by Russell E. Heacock, a Justice of the Peace
for Cook county, when the following vote was taken on the propriety of
incorporating the Town of Chicago, County of Cook, State of Illinois:
FOR INCORPORATION — John S. C. Hogan, C. A. Ballard, G. W.
22 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
Snow, R. J. Hamilton, J. T. Temple, John Wright, G. W. Dole, Hiram
Pearsons, Alanson Sweet, E. S. Kimberly, T. J. V. Owen, Mark
Beaubien — 12.
AGAINST INCORPORATION — Russell E. Heacock — i.
We certify the above poll to be correct.
[Signed] T. J. V. OWEN, President.
ED. S. KIMBERLY, Clerk."
At the first election of trustees of the town, held on the tenth of
August, there were twenty-eight voters, whose names were, E. S. Kim-
berly, J. B. Beaubien, Mark Beaubien, T. J. V. Owen, William Ninson,
Hiram Pearsons, Philo Carpenter, George Chapman, John Wright, John
T. Temple, Matthias Smith, David Carver, James Kinzie, Charles Taylor,
John S. C. Hogan, Eli A. Rider, Dexter J. Hapgood, George W. Snow,
Madore Beaubien, Gholson Kercheval, Geo. W. Dole, R. J. Hamilton,
Stephen F.N Gale, Enoch Darling, W. H. Adams, C. A. Ballard, John '
Watkins, James Gilbert. The election resulted in the choice of T. J. V.
Owen, George W. Dole, Madore Beaubien, John Miller, and E. S. Kimberlv.
Mr. Owen was elected President. The town now contained five hundred
and fifty inhabitants and a hundred and seventy-five buildings, the value of
taxable property being about twenty thousand dollars. During the year
1833 over a hundred and fifty frame buildings were erected, among which
was the Green Tree Tavern, which was the first building erected especially
for its purpose. Among the arrivals this year were J. K. Botsford, Franklin
Bascom, E. H. Hadduck, Walter Kimball, S. B. Cobb, Mancel Talcott,
Starr Foote, S. D. Pierce, John D. Caton, Hibbard Porter and Thomas H.
Woodworth.
In the month of September in this year, the Ottawas, Chippewas
and Pottawatomies of Illinois, at the invitation of the government,
assembled in council in Chicago for the purpose of selling all their
lands in Illinois to the United States. The Pottawatomies of Indiana and
Michigan had already sold to the government the .lands which they still
held in the State. A treaty was concluded at this September council by
the terms of which all the lands then belonging to the tribes named, became
the government's. The consideration given for this relinquishment, was
five million acres on the Missouri river south of Boyer river — to which
the government agreed to transport the Indians at its own expense, and
maintain them for one year — an annuity of fourteen thousand dollars for
twenty years; improvements in their new home to the value of one hun~
dred and fifty thousand dollars; seventy thousand dollars for educational
purposes, and some other annuities to individuals, and the payment of claims
against the three tribes. This treaty was consummated September twenty-
sixth, and although two years elapsed before they were removed — their suc-
cessful removal being accomplished by Colonel J. B. F. Russell, with ox
teams — we are relieved of a most annoying nuisance in the history of
Chicago.
We have no desire to be thought vindictive toward these native barba-
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 23
rians. but believing that this naturally rich and beautiful country, which even
without the touch of human hand, buds and blossoms with the sweetness
and beauty of the rose, was intended to be, under the intelligent direction
of civilized man, the garden and the granary of the world, we have no
sympathy with the morbid sentiment that would permit an insignificant
number of worthless savages, incapable, as a whole, of civilization, to
stand in the way of development; and if we had, it would amount to
nothing, for the weaker must succumb to the stronger.
The year 1834 was one of very marked development. The steamboats
on Lake Erie began, this year, to make weekly visits to Chicago. From the
twentieth of April to the first of May a hundred and fifty vessels discharged
their cargoes at this port; the voters of the county numbered five hundred
and twenty-eight, of which Chicago had one hundred and eleven; a stage
line was opened to the westward, a route was established between the
town and Ottawa, and a draw-bridge was built across the river at Dearborn
street.
Noting the arrival in 1834 of such men as William Jones, James Grant,
F. C. Sherman, A. E. Webster, Grant Goodrich and Thomas Church, we
pass to notice the events of 1835, which was a prominent year in the
history which we are compiling. This was the year of inflation, and
inflation always means disaster in the end. Chicago was then the Leadville
of to-day. The population of the town had increased to over three
thousand, and land was being sold to everybody who had money to
buy, even though the buyers had nothing left with which to purchase a
meal or a night's lodging. Everybody was buying lots and nobody was
going into legitimate trade. The land speculation was simply enormous,
and as if there was not enough land to satisfy the demand, the government
reservation, on the east of State street was included in the town limits by
an act of the legislature, except that the Fort Dearborn reservation, lying
between Madison street and the river, was not. included. From June to
December the sales at the United States Land Office amounted to over
three hundred and seventy thousand acres, and most of it was located in or
near Chicago.
The town this year found itself in need of extra money to an extent
that seemed to necessitate a resort to borrowing; and the treasurer was
authorized to secure two thousand dollars, a proposition which so startled
him that he resigned, and so far as we have been able to ascertain the
money was never obtained. There were other officers, however, who did
not shrink from the discharge of duty, some portion of which, as is always
the case in newly settled and rapidly growing communities, was of a
very delicate nature. The Board of Trustees, which was a new board
elected in July, was composed of this sort of mettle, and it proceeded to
prohibit gambling, the sale of liquor on the Sabbath, to appoint police
constables, establish cemeteries — one on Chicago avenue near the lake and
the other at the corner of Wabash avenue and Twenty-third street — and
seems to have won the good opinions of its constituency, and might have
24 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
commanded the admiration of posterity, had it not foolishly sacrificed the
valuable wharfing privileges of the town. In November of this year the
Board of Trustees resolved to sell these privileges for nine hundred and
ninety-nine years, the board agreeing to dredge the river to a depth of ten
feet within four years of the sale, and the purchasers to bind themselves to
erect docks within two years from the date of th^ lease. A minimum price
was fixed at which parties had the privilege of scouring the frontage- before
the public sale, and there appears to have been enough to avail themselves
of this opportunity to so diminish the number of im^aken lots that only six
remained to be disposed of when the public sale o~curred. This is not
much to be wondered at when it is considered that the minimum price,
fixed for lots on South Water street was only twenty-five dollars, on North
Water street only eighteen dollars and seventy-five ocvufs, and on West
Water street only eighteen dollars, per front foot. Indeed, subsequent to
its first action the board lowered the price on North W-.'Ctr street from
eighteen dollars and seventy-five cents to fifteen dollars" per foot.
The year was also distinguished as the one during which rlx ilrst fire,
and hook and ladder companies were organized, and the first fii? engine
was purchased. The following are the names of the members of fhese
pioneer companies : Of the fire company : S. G. Trowbridge, Foreman,
H. B. Clarke, John Dye, Joel Wicks, J. M. Morrison, E. Morrison, H. G.
Loomis, J. H. Mulford, T. O. Davis, H. M. Draper, J. S. C. Hogan, R. A.
Neff, H. H. Magee, William Young, Peter Warden, Alvin Cahoon, Peter
Pruyne, W. McForresten, Ira Kimberly, O. L. Beach, M. B. Beaubien, A.
V. Knickerbocker, S. C. George, A. A. Markle, S. W. Paine, E. Peck,
Hugh G. Gibson, John Calhoon, W. H. Clark, J. C. Hamilton, H. C.
Pearsons and D. S. Dewey. Of the hook and ladder company : Jason
McCord, G. W. Merrill, Thomas S. Hyde, Joseph Meeker, J. K. Botsford,
Thomas J. King, N. L. F. Monroe, S. S. Lathrop, G. W. Snow, P. F. W.
Peck, Joseph L. Hanson, T. S. Eells, S. B. Cobb, J. A. Smith, Henry G.
Hubbard, John R. Langston, J. K. Palmer, John Wilson, S. F. Spaulding,
John Holbrook, T. Perkins, E. C. Brackett, George Smith, and Ira Cook.
Hiram Hugunin was elected Chief Engineer.
The official seal — a spread eagle, having three arrows in his claws,
and the words "United States of America" surrounding the same — was
adopted in November of this year; and thus closes the year 1835. It
was eventful in the history of Chicago. It would be well if some of its
record had never been made, but while there is much to regret there is a
great deal to be proud of and thankful for. The year will always be
regarded as an important epoch in Chicago's history because of the addition
to the population of many who afterward played an important part in the
city's development. Among these may be mentioned John Wentworth,
Dr. D. S. Smith, L. D. Boone, Isaac N. Arnold, Laurin P. Hilliard, Mark
Skinner, Norman B. Jucld, W. A. Baldwin, B. W. Raymond, Walter
Wright, J. M. Van Osdel, Thomas Dyer, E. S. Wadsworth and Julius
Wadsworth.
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
25
In the following year the construction of the canal was commenced
— the first sod being turned on the Fourth of July — and 1836 was
in other ways a year of marked advancement. The harbor was so
much improved that vessels could readily enter the river, and many very
desirable and important improvements were made in the city, such as
constructing sluices to convey the drainage to- the river, and turnpiking
some of the streets. Other improvements were in contemplation, but the
condition of the treasury prevented the authorities from carrying them out.
fFhe most distinguishing feature of the year's history, however, was the
movement made in October toward organizing a city government. The
town being divided into three districts, the people of each district were
invited at that time by the President of the Board of Trustees to send three
representatives to consult with the board as to the propriety of applying to
the legislature for a charter. Meetings were held in the several districts
and Ebenezer Peck, William Stewart, and E. W. Casey, of the first district,
W. Forsyth, J. D. Caton and Mr. Chedwick, of the second, and W. S.
Newberry, John H. Kinzie and T. W. Smith of the third, were selected as
delegates, and the conference was held on the evening of November twenty-
eighth, at which it was resolved that it was expedient to ask for a charter.
Upon the adoption of this resolution, a committee consisting of Messrs.
Bolles and Ogden, of the trustees, and Messrs. Peck, Caton and Smith, of
the delegates, were appointed to prepare the draft of a charter. On the ninth
of the following month another meeting of the trustees and delegates was
held, the draft prepared by the committee submitted, and, with some amend-
ments, adopted.
Thus we come to the end of the history of the town of Chicago, a
history which is full of interest, for in the three years and a half that it was
making, the population grew from a handful up into the thousands, the
value of property increased from almost nothing to nearly one million
dollars, and the wildest of sites was about to become the location of a city
which was destined to be the metropolis of America.
26
CHAPTER V.
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.
We begin to emerge into the midst of familiar surroundings. Having
pursued our investigations in the far distance, and followed footsteps
which were interesting because they were quaint, we are now where we
recognize the footprints. From the deepening shadows of the past we
have come into the sunshine of the present. The title of the chapter is not
strange to any ear in the civilized world, and is charmingly melodious to
the five hundred thousand people who are as proud of being Chicagoans
as the citizen of ancient Rome was proud of being a Roman. And yet
how few of us stood by the cradle of this young city. As the historian
leads us back to the birth and baptism of the infant, a half million people
inquire, Where are the sponsors? and but few answer to the call of their
names. There is but a handful left. The young men of then are the
fathers and grandfathers of now; the brows that were then garlanded with
the bloom of Spring are now whitened by the Winter's snows, and grooved
by the steady wear -of the years. We look for some of the faces -which
history has made familiar, but they are not here. But although lost to sight,
their memories are cherished, and their deeds still live. As long as there
is a spire, a wall or a page of history reflecting the luster of the names of the
founders of Chicago, posterity will tread softly as it approaches their tombs,
and bow the head reverently in the shadow of the monuments that mark
their resting places. All honor to the men, living or dead, who brought
this great city into being.
The charter under which the city was organized was granted by the
legislature, and approved March 4th, 1837. The territorial limits were
bounded on the north by North avenue, on the east by the lake — with the
exception that a portion of section ten was occupied as a military post, and
excluded — on the south by Twenty-second street, and on the west by Wood
street. In addition to this ten square miles — which was the area — there
was included the land on the lake shore east of Clark street, and extending
a half mile north of North avenue.
The city was divided into six wards. The first election was held on
the first Tuesday of May following the date of the approval of the charter,
the result being as follows : Mayor, William B. Ogden ; Aldermen : — First
ward, J. C. Goodhue and Francis Sherman; second ward, J. S. C. Hogan
and Peter Bolles; third ward, J. D. Cator. and H. Hugunin; fourth ward,
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 27
A. Pierce and F. H. Taylor; fifth ward, Bernard Ward; sixth ward, S.
Jackson and H. Pearson. John Shrigley was elected High Constable, and
Norman B. Judd was chosen City Attorney.
The population at this time, including the sailors belonging to vessels
owned in Chicago, was nearly four thousand, and there were in the place
three hundred and ninety-eight dwellings, four warehouses, five churches,
twenty-nine dry goods stores, nineteen grocery and provision stores, five
hardware stores, three drug stores and ten taverns. Chicago started with
an overplus of taverns, and although the tavern has risen to the dignity of a
hotel, in name, we still have more "taverns" than is beneficial to the
community. Chicago is very largely domiciled in hotels. Her populace
seem to have inherited the early inclination to have no real home, and to
be satisfied to sleep and eat, without a fig tree of their own. Our hotels
are palaces, which eclipse the hotels of the world, and in them the guest is
often surrounded with elegance which could not be secured in a private
home. But there is no place like the exclusive retreat of a private family.
Husband and wife, parent and child, brother and sister, friend and friend,
can approrch the fullest enjoyment of life, and secure the grandest
development of personal virtues, only in the home over whose threshold
and near whose door the stranger is forbidden to tread.
The city of Chicago, however, was apparently favored at its birth.
It possessed determination, a goodly population, and the enterprise which
has always distinguished it. But the most acute cannot look into the future.
Scarcely had the city begun to live, when a great financial panic — kn'own
as the panic of 1837 — appeared to antagonize its prosperity. The young
city was utterly prostrate under the misfortune. Real estate decreased in
value eighty per cent., or rather that was the difference between what it
was bought for in 1836 and could be sold for in 1837. The people grew
restless and, in some degree, desperate. They held a meeting for the
purpose of inaugurating measures looking to virtual repudiation of debts,
which is more fully detailed in the sketch of the life of the first Mayor,
at the close of this chapter. Yet this should not be a cause of surprise or
really of censure. Men rush to a rapidly developing frontier settlement,
and invest their all in what promises to be a success. Adversity comes,
and their means, little or great, sink out of sight. Not having the pene-
trating foresight and cool reasoning faculties of a William B. Ogden, the
vast majority cannot see the silvery lining to the cloud. Possibly, and
probably, there were dishonest men in the repudiation meeting of 1837,
but it is better to cover their faults with charity, and to crown the majoritv
which declared that the people of the city would not repudiate, with the
choicest laurels of honor. For five years from 1837 the city was loaded
down with more financial embarrassment than any other community in
the country. The people generally had invested all they had in real
estate, and they were compelled to resort to the land for subsistence.
Consequently gardens abounded, and these were the basis of the appellation
of "Garden City," a pretty name by which Chicago is known, but which.
28 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
without this explanation, the observer of our thickly populated streets
would find it difficult to account for.
Mr. Ogden was succeeded in the Mayoralty by B. S. Morris, who was
elected in 1838, and served until the election of Benjamin W. Raymond to
the office, in March of the following year. The most noticeable events of
1839 were the distress which prevailed among the people living in the
shanties along the line of the canal — many of whom flocked into the city
for the pui'pose of obtaining aid — and the sale to Chicago of the Fort
Dearborn addition. An effort was made by Mayor Raymond and others
to induce the government to give this land td the city, but it was futile.
Mr. Raymond was elected to a second term of the Mayoralty, and
from his retirement from the office the city has had the following Mayors:
Augustus Garrett, Alanson Sherman, John P. Chapin, James Curtis,
James H. Woodworth, Walter S. Gurnee, Charles M. Gray, Isaac L.
Milliken, Levi D. Boone, Thomas Dyer, John Wentworth, John C.
Haines, Julian S. Rumsey, Francis C. Sherman, John B. Rice, Roswell
B. Mason, Joseph Medill, Harvey D. Colvin, Monroe Heath and Carter
H. Harrison.
After 1842, when the financial panic began to yield to prosperity,
there was a steady progress toward bringing order out of the considerable
degree of chaos, and toward the symmetry, beauty and convenience which
is now beheld. Naturally enough the advance was slow, for there was
everything to do, and very little to do it with. There were streets to
be paved, a city to be drained, lighted, and supplied with water, and a
harbor to be improved, altogether aggregating a vast deal of work, much
of which must be performed under exceedingly adverse circumstances.
Previous to 1840 the only water supply was the peddler and his pail,
and these furnished the always necessary liquid at the doors of the houses
at so much a bucketful. In 1840, however, the Hydraulic Company,
which was organized in 1836, with a capital of two hundred and fifty
thousand dollars, began to supply the city with water. The company built
a reservoir on the corner of Lake street and Michigan avenue, twenty-five
feet square, eight feet deep, and elevated to a height of eighty feet above
the surface of the ground. A pump was erected, which was connected by
an iron pipe with the lake, and which ran into the lake a distance of a
hundred and fifty feet. This pump was operated by an engine of twenty-
five horse power, and the water was distributed through logs which had-
been bored out.
In 1842 James Long contracted with the Hydraulic Company to do
all the pumping for the city for ten yeai's, without cost to the company,
in consideration of his having the free use of the surplus power of the
engine; but long before that contract expired the engine proved too small
to do the work.
In 1852, bonds to the amount of four hundred thousand dollars were
issued by the city for the construction of water works, and from the sale
of these bonds three hundred and sixty-one thousand two hundred and
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 29
eighty dollars was realized, and the work of inaugurating a new water
system was entered upon. Near the site of the present pumping works
on the North Side, a timber crib was built six hundred feet from the
shore, the water conducted into a well, from which it was pumped by a
two hundred horse power engine, into a cast iron column one hundred and
forty feet high. A reservoir sufficient to hold a night's supply, was
subsequently built in each of the three Divisions of the city. The water
was first introduced, by this system, into the houses in February, 1854.
These works were superseded in 1867, by a new water tower, immense
pumping machinery, and the great lake tunnel. The construction of this
tunnel — which was projected by E. S. Chesbrough, and is a monument to
his ability as an engineer — was begun on the seventeenth of March, 1864.
A shaft nine feet in diameter was sunk at the shore end, to a depth of
seventy-five feet. To accomplish this it was necessary to sink an iron
cylinder down through the quicksands, which covered the clay subsoil,
to a depth of twenty-five feet. The sand inside the sunken cylinder was
removed until clay was reached, when the excavation was continued to the
distance below the surface above noted, and the whole bricked up from
the bottom. At the proposed east end of the tunnel, which was two
miles out into the lake, a crib forty and a half feet high, made in the shape
of a pentagon, the extreme circumscribing circle of which was ninety feet
in diameter, was sunk on the twenty-fifth of July, 1865. This crib was
built of logs a foot square and consisted of three walls placed at a distance
of eleven feet from each other, leaving a central pentagonal space having
an inscribing circle of twenty-five feet, which was intended for the accom-
modation of an iron cylinder which is nine feet in diameter. The crib
contains seven hundred and fifty thousand feet of lumber, one hundred
and fifty tons of iron bolts, and being filled with four thousand and five
hundred tons of stones, weighs fifty-seven hundred tons.
On the twenty-second of December, 1865, the workmen descended the
iron tube within the crib, and began tunneling toward the shore, a set of
workmen in the meantime being engaged in the work of tunneling from
the shore. In December, 1866, the two sets of workmen met, and on the
sixth of that month the last stone was laid, and this magnificent piece of
engineering completed.
The inside width of the tunnel is five feet, and the height is five feet
and two inches. The lining is brick masonry eight inches thick, in two
shells, the bricks being laid lengthwise of the tunnel. The bottom of the
inside surface at the east etid is sixty feet below water level, and the shore
end is four feet lower, giving the tunnel a decline of two feet to the mile.
Water was first supplied to the hydrants of the city from this tunnel on the
twenty-fifth of March, 1867. In 1878 the tunnel was extended under
the city to the West Division, and there are now large and elegant pump-
ing works at the corner of Ashland avenue and Twenty-second street.
But comparatively rude as was the water system adopted or endured
in 1840, it was considerably, in advance of the street improvements. At
30 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
first drainage was sought to be effected bv ditches on the sides of the street,
o o •*
but as these did not answer the purpose, an attempt was made to improve the
••-\ stem" by digging a drain in the middle of the street. It was, however, a
change and not an improvement. The imperfect drainage continued until
the severe visitation of the cholera in 1854, by wrhich the larger proportion
of the three thousand eight hundred and thirty deaths — one to every
seventeen inhabitants — which occurred during the year, was caused. The
epidemic was believed to be largely attributable to this cause.
But how was it to be improved? As already noticed in a previous
chapter, the land was very little above the level of the lake, and so small
was the elevation that a sufficient slope to pipes and sewers could not be
obtained. But Chicago was not made of material to surrender to difficulties,
and it was decided to raise the grade four feet. Later it was raised some
seven feet above the original level of the land. The work of filling in,
however, was not begun to any great extent until 1856, and was really not
vigorously pushed forward until 1859 and 1860. During these years the
work of lifting up the city was commenced in earnest, and entire blocks
of heavy stone and brick buildings were raised, new foundations built up,
and the land raised to accommodate the new nature of things. With the
raising of the grade came improved drainage, and by the middle of 1857
all the more thickly settled portions of the city had been sewered.
With the elevation of {he surface and improved drainage, came, also,
the desire for better streets, or perhaps the desire always existed, and it
would be more proper to say, that with these improvements came the
determination to improve the streets. Previous to 1844 a few plank side-
walks had been laid, but the roadway of the streets were barren of anything
in the shape of pavement, and the difficulty of travel upon the soft, wet
soil will readily suggest itself, without any attempt at description. This
year witnessed the beginning of the planking process, which was continued
until twenty-seven miles of streets were planked. But it was little better
than no pavement. In fact after a short time the planks became broken
and displaced by travel and the thawing of the ground, and then were a
cause of more trouble and inconvenience than the soil without planks.
But this was the style of pavement used for more than ten years, at
the expiration of about wrhich time cobble stones began to be used to
some little extent. Some of the leading thoroughfares, however, were
treated to a covering of macadam. But the favorite pavement of Chicago
— wooden blocks — was first tried in 1856, on about eight hundred square
yards on Fifth avenue, between Lake and South *Water streets. In the year
following another piece was laid on Washington street between Clark
and State streets. In 1858-9 Clark street from Lake to Polk streets was
paved with wooden blocks, and East Lake street was similarly paved
in 1861.
Since then this pavement has become well nigh universal in all our
paved streets, and while there are many side streets yet unpaved, and while
there is impatience manifested to have something done to prevent the
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 31
transferring of tons of dirt from these streets to those that are paved, a
little thought will convince the impatient that in our paved main thorough-
fares is represented a most satisfactory progress. The citizen who feels
that a more rapid advance should have been made, should lose no time in
tempering his unreasonable impatience by perusing the history of the world in
the endeavor to find a parallel of the progress of less than a half century,
upon a spot which excites the wonder and admiration of mankind. When
the parallel is discovered, he may assume the right to complain.
In 1847 the city limits were extended to Western avenue on the west,
and to embrace all the territory between North and Fullerton avenues, east
of Sedgwick street. In 1854 the boundaries of the city became Fullerton
avenue on the north, Thirty-first streettm the south, Western avenue on the
west, and one mile into the lake on the east. Bridgeport and Holston were
not then included in the limits. The State legislature in 184 3-4 passed an act
providing for the completion of the Illinois and Michigan canal, but on a less
pretentious scale than was originally contemplated. "The plan," using the
words of Colbert and Chamberlin, "as at first adopted was for the canal,
of ninety-six miles long from the Chicago river to LaSalle, to have its
highest level only three feet above the lake, this highest line extending
from Chicago to Lockport. A part of the work was executed upon this
plan. But when operations were resumed it was on the shallow principle,
the highest level being twelve feet above the lake; from this level a series
of fifteen locks provided a descent of one hundred and sixty-six feet between
it and LaSalle." "The summit," says Honorable William Bross, "was
supplied with water in the Spring and wet seasons, mainly from the Calu-
met through the 'Sag,' by damming the river near Blue Island. To
provide for any deficiency, pumping works of great capacity were built
at Bridgeport, which, when the supply from the Calumet failed, not only
furnished the canal with water, but pumping the stagnant liquid from the
river rendered it pure, for its place was supplied from the lake.
"By 1865 the population of Chicago had increased to one hundred and
seventy-eight thousand and nine hundred; the city had inaugurated and com-
pleted an extensive system of sewers, most of which emptied into the river.
For perhaps nine or ten months of the year it had no current, and hence it
became the source of the foulest smells that a suffering people were ever
forced to endure; and, besides, it was evident that something must be
done effectively to cleanse it, or the city would soon become so unhealthy
as to be uninhabitable. Accordingly, on the fifteenth and sixteenth of
February, 1865, the legislature passed Acts authorizing the city of Chicago
to lower the summit of the canal, as originally proposed, so that the pure
waters of Lake Michigan would flow south, thus cleansing the river anil
dispensing with the dam on the Calumet and the pumping works at Bridge-
port. Authority was granted to borrow two million dollars to do this
work, and with Colonel R. B. Mason, of this city, and William Gooding,
of Lockport, added to the Board of Public Works, the work of lowering
the summit of the canal was commenced, and it was completed June
jz CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
I5th, 1871. On that day the hoisting of the gates at Bridgeport was made
known throughout the city by the merry ringing of the bells, and joy
pervaded all circles and all classes of citizens. Thenceforward Lake
Michigan has contributed a portion of its waters to the Illinois river, and
thence it has flowed on to the Gulf of Mexico."
The Act of the legislature above referred to was in effect that the
canal lands yet remaining unsold, and the canal itself, be placed in the
hands of three trustees, two of whom should be chosen by the holders of
the canal bonds, and one by the State, upon condition that the bondholders
should furnish one thousand and six hundred dollars for the completion of
the work. The terms were accepted, the money — which was largely
English capital — furnished, and the canal finished and opened for business
in the Spring of 1848. It has lost much of its importance as a highway
since Chicago has become a great railroad center, but as a great sewer for the
city its present importance is vital, and for what it did even before its creation
to give impulse to development, it must always occupy a prominent place
in the early as well as the later history of the city. The original cost of
the canal was six million, four hundred and nine thousand, five hundred
and nine dollars, which was increased by the city's expenditures for deepen-
ing to about nine million dollars.
Some mention has already been made of river and harbor improve-
ments, but only the beginning of these have as yet received notice. The
completion of the canal made an increase of docks a necessity. There
was a great deal of dock building along the main river, and by 1852 there
were two miles of wharves. In 1844 General George B. McClellan sub-
mitted plans for the improvement of the harbor, and some work was done
in accordance with them, but the time and means expended in doing it
were utterly wasted. Outside of the present breakwater on the south shore,
a line of piling was driven, according to General McClellan's suggestion,
but they were entirely powerless to prevent the waves from washing away
the land. Between the years 1844 anc^ J^47 ^e river was considerably
improved. South Water street was set back half a block, and the bank of
the *jver sti-aightened out; and in 1847 floating bridges were built at Wells,
Randolph and Madison streets. In 1849, however, all the bridges over
the river were swept away by a freshet, and better bridges were substituted.
In 1852 the Illinois Central Railroad Company began the construction of
its breakwater, along the south shore, and completed it to a distance of two
miles, at a cost of three-quarters of a million dollars. Considerable additional
piling has since been driven. It is, perhaps, sufficient to say that the river
has been dredg-ed and wharfed, until it affords good accommodations for
the shipping and large commerce which it receives from and sends to the
great chain of lakes. In 1863 the city limits were again extended, this time
to include Bridgeport and Holston, and embracing an area of twenty-four
square miles. Building about this time was very extensive, nearly five
millions of dollars being expended in that direction in 1864. The Chicago
Gas Light and Coke Company had been chartered in 1849, and had the
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 33
exclusive right to supply the city with gas for ten years. The company
first turned on the gas in September, 1850, and enjoyed the monopoly of
furnishing light down to June, 1862, at which time the People's- Gas Light
and Coke Company began to supply the West Division with gas, and the
Chicago Company was restricted to the supply of the North and South
Divisions. The insufficiency of dock room was so great that in 1864, be-
sides the ten miles of wharves, which by this time had been built, an exten-
sive series of slips on the South Branch were dug out and fitted for the
accommodation of shipping. An artesian well was bored at this date in
what is now the western part of the city, and several have since been
successfully opened.
The corporate limits and jurisdiction of the city now includes all of
the township thirty-nine, north range fourteen, and all of sections one, two,
eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, twenty-three, twenty-four, twenty-five,
twenty-six, and that portion of sections thirty-five and thirty-six lying north
and west of the center of the Illinois and Michigan canal, in range thirteen,
east of the third principal meridian, and that portion of section thirty lying
south and west of the center of the North Branch of Chicago river, and all
of sections thirty-one, thirty-two, thirty-three, and fractional section thirty-
four, in township forty, north range fourteen, east of the third principal
meridian, together with so much of the waters and bed of Lake Michigan
as lie within one mile of the shore thereof, and east of *the territory afore-
said. The North Division comprises all that portion of the aforesaid
territory lying north of the center of the main Chicago river and east of
the center of the North Branch of said river. The South Division is all
that portion lying south of the center of the main Chicago river and south
and east of the center of the South Branch of said river and of the Illinois
and Michigan canal. The West Division embraces all that portion of the
territory lying west of the center of the North and South Branches of the
river and of the Illinois and Michigan canal. The city is divided into
eighteen wards.
The main chain of development has thus been followed from the city's
birth until the present. The chapter, however, contains only a portion of
the events which make the history of the period. These will be enumer-
ated in the chapters that are to follow. The record has been one of sun-
shine and gloom, but all the shadows have been swallowed up by the bril-
liancy of the morning light in which this chapter closes.
34
WILLIAM B. OGDEN.
William B. Ogden, the first Mayor of Chicago, was born in the town
of Walton, Delaware county, New York, on the fifteenth of June, -1805.
His father, Abraham Ogden, immediately after the revolutionary war, went
from New Jersey to the county in which the subject of this sketch was
born, where he led an active life until a stroke of paralysis impaired his
usefulness in 1820. Five years later he died. The wife of Abraham
Ogden, the mother of William B., was a daughter of James Weed, of
New Qmaan, Fairfield county, Connecticut.
It was the early intention of young Ogden to fit himself for the legal
profession, but the prostration of his father's health interfered, and when
only sixteen years of age he was compelled to leave school and return
home to take charge of his father's business. At the age of twenty-one
he engaged in mercantile business, but, although he was fairly successful
in this, his spirit yearned for broader operations and larger gains, and in
1835, as noticed in the previous chapter, he arrived in Chicago, having
previously made large purchases of land here. Previous to leaving his
native State he occupied the position of Postmaster of Walton, and was
elected to the legislature for one term.
At first Mr. Ogden was very successful in his operations in his new
home, but the panic of 1837 greatly crippled him, and it was a struggle
with him for several years. In 1843, however, he had weathered the storm,
and henceforth his career was one of unclouded pi'osperity. Through all his
financial troubles his life was characterized by the most unbending honesty.
When his fellow citizens, none of whom were in much worse financial
plight than he was, called a meeting in 1837 to devise means to stay the
collection of debts, Mayor Ogden, after some inflammatory speaking had
been done, stepped forward, and begged the people to conceal and not to
proclaim their misfortune, and above all things not to tarnish the name of
the infant city. This display of judgment, honesty and policy by the
Mayor subdued the flames that were ready to burst forth, and practical
repudiation was killed.
Mr. Ogden held many positions of trust, in addition to that of Mayor
of Chicago, prominent among which may be noticed the following: —
Presidency of Rush Medical College; Presidency of the Galena and
Chicago Union Railroad Company; Presidency of the Chicago tind Wis-
consin Railroad Company, and Presidency of the Chicago and North-
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 55
western Railway Company; and he was several times in the City Council.
The success of his business operations and the rise in his real estate,
after his recovery from the effects of the panic in 1837, crystallized into an
immense fortune. His business interests in New York, during the latter por-
tion of his life, demanding so much of his attention, he purchased a beautiful
villa, in the Spring of 1866, at Fordham Heights, New York, and although
maintaining the homestead at Chicago, spent most of his time in absence
from the city. He died August 3d, 1877, leaving his name stamped upon
Chicago as a whole, and upon nearly every public institution in particular,
and his memory is cherished as that of a noble, enterprising and successful
man, whose worth is rarely equaled and never excelled.
GURDON S. HUBBARD.
Standing amidst the magnificence, commercial importance and social
status of this fourth city in the American Union, Gurdon S. Hubbard can
trace the marvelous development from its very inception as a part of his
own personal experience. Coming here in 1818 he witnessed the planting of
the germ that has opened into this beautiful flower. Through all the
sunshine and shadows of Chicago's history his name, achievements and
sacrifices are prominent as the central figure on the painting; and now in
the evening of life, and as the only remaining tie that links the harvest to
the seedtime, his reminiscences and the colossal results of the feeblest of
beginnings, must play upon his mind as the fancies of a strange dream.
But the events of his life are too numerous and our space too limited to
permit indulgence in speculation, generalities, or such eulogy as a life like
his merits, and to pronounce which would be the most pleasant of duties.
Fortunately such a life is its own eulogy, and the record being one of
absorbing interest, will enlist greater attention than the warmest enco-
miums of the biographer could possibly win.
Gurdon S. Hubbard was born in Windsor, Vermont, August -22d,
1802, and was the son of JElizur and Abigal Hubbard, being the eldest of
six children. His parents being in very modest circumstances, they were
unable to give their children other education than that furnished by the
common schools of the time and locality. When ten years of age, how-
ever, Gurdon left home and went to reside in Bridgewater, Massachusetts,
where he had the opportunity of attending a school taught by the
Reverend Daniel Huntington. In the Spring of 1815, he returned home,
and very soon thereafter the whole family removing to Montreal, he
entered the hardware store of John Frothingham of that city, as a clerk,
remaining in that position until the Spring of 1818, when he entered the
service of the American Fur Company under William W. Matthews.
His agreement with Mr. Matthews stipulated for a five years' service at a
hundred and twenty dollars per year. In accordance with this arrangement
he left Montreal, in the company of one hundred and thirty-three em-
ployees of the Fur Company, May I3th, 1818. The party experienced
difficulties which it is doubtful if even imagination can outline, and upon
reaching Toronto forty or fifty of the men deserted. Young Hubbard,
however, was not to be conquered or dismayed by obstacles, and his
regard for principle would, of itself, have been sufficient to have prevented
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 37
him from violating his contract. Then, as ever since, his conduct was
actuated by the most unswerving fidelity to duty and beautified by a con-
spicuous display of honor.
The remnant of the party now started out upon a different route than
that originally contemplated, traveling what was known as the Young
Street road, coasting Lake Sincoe, the southern extremity, then crossing
by land via Portage to Nottoway, Sanga river, and slowly pushing their
way along, reaching Mackinac July 4th, 1818. From this point they
gradually crept southward to the mouth of the Chicago river, where
they arrived about the first of November. Upon arriving at Chicago the
party made portage, drawing their boats across Mud Lake to Bridgeport,
and carrying their goods on their backs to the Desplaines river which they
descended to the junction of the Kankakee, and thence to the Illinois river.
Mr. Hubbard was detailed to the Trading Post at the mouth of the
Bureau river. It was originally intended that he should be permanently
located at Lake Superior, but a desire to be nearer his father and only
brother, who he learned, upon his arrival in Chicago, had concluded to
make St. Louis their home, prompted him to request a transfer, which
request was readily acceded to. He now became a part of the Illinois
brigade, under the charge of Antoine Deschants, an old trader, who had a
dozen boats plying on the Illinois river. The Bureau Trading Post was
in charge of a man who was so ignorant that he could neither read nor
write, and Mr. Hubbard was compelled to keep the accounts. He was
allowed, however, to accompany Mr. Deschants to St. Louis, where he
met his father and brother, and then returned to his post of duty, arriving
about the middle of November. This being about the close of naviga-
tion, little of any business was done after his return, until the following
Spring. Young Hubbard, however, busied himself during the Winter,
in hunting and trapping, acquiring a knowledge of the Indian language
and becoming acquainted with the peculiarities of the fur trade.
We next find Mr. Hubbard in the fur store at Mackinac, under W.
W. Wallace. For several years he spent the Summers at this rendezvous,
and the Winters in Illinois. One Winter was spent on the site of the
present town of Kalamazoo, where the agent at Mackinac was desirous of
having Mr. Hubbard settle and take charge of an outfit. In the Spring,
however, he returned to Mackinac and superseded Mr. Matthews in charge
of the fur store at that place. The next Winter he went to Muskegon
where he had charge of affairs, and the Winter following he returned to
Illinois, and took charge of the outfit at Crooked Creek. At the end of
seven years, he superseded his former superior, Mr. Deschants, who had
become too old to perform the services required. Mr. Hubbard, after one
more season's experience over the old familiar route, resolved to seek out
a new path. The Indian trade was rather in the interior than on the
rivers, and the enterprising successor of Mr. Deschants decided to abandon
the water lines, and substitute horses for boats. Accordingly he purchased
one hundred Indian horses, and loading them with goods, took a course
38 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
through an unbroken plain, upon which the eye of no white man had ever
before rested, to the interior. The path then marked out, and afterward
followed, became famous as "Hubbard's Trail." Two or three trips a
season were made, carrying goods one way and furs the other. By 1825
Southern Illinois began to be settled by pioneers, and Mr. Hubbard wished
to connect the trade in goods for white customers with the Indian trade.
To this the Fur Company would not consent, but offered to sell out to
him, and he accepted the offer, thus closing his service with the American
Fur Company which began at a salary of a hundred and twenty dollars a
year and ended when he was receiving an annual salary of thirteen hun-
dred dollars. The growth of the white population induced Mr. Hubbard
to abandon his trading posts sout.h of Danville in 1827, b«t north of that
point it continued for some years, gradually dying out, however, before
the encroachments of the white trade.
In 1834 Mr. Hubbard removed from Danville to Chicago and settled
here permanently. He had already been a member of the legislature for
one term, had participated in the Black Hawk war, and from early boy-
hood to the flush of manhood had proven himself equal to unusual
emergencies, and ready to perform any duty that might devolve upon him,
As a permanent resident of Chicago, therefore, he was welcomed as a
valuable acquisition, and his subsequent life of usefulness has demonstrated
that his worth was not overestimated. Yet there were those who thought
him visionary, and by way of showing their superior wisdom — which,
however, time has demonstrated to have been superior short-sightedness —
his brick store — the first brick building ever erected in the place — which
he built on the corner of LaSalle and South Water streets, was called
"Hubbard's Folly." Little did the authors of such an indignity under-"
stand the man whose acts they were criticising. What to them looked
blank and dark, to his keen perception opened as a bower of beauty and a
Summer's morning. They saw not further than the morrow; he peered
into the coming years. Their thoughts were lazily flowing in the shadow
of Fort Dearborn; his were reveling amidst the fancied elegance of a
prosperous town, if not that of a great city.
Mr. Hubbard now went into the forwarding business, keeping a large
stock of goods, and becoming at once a leading citizen. During the second
year of his residence here he was appointed one of the Commissioners of
the Illinois and Michigan canal. He was one of the first organizers of the
system of large vessels to ply between this city and Buffalo, and had a
large interest in the lake shipping.
Retiring from mercantile trade in 1836, he still continued actively
engaged in other kinds of business, and when the panic of 1837 came> like
others whose business was extensive, he was prostrated. But he had been
successful in too many conflicts now to be overcome. In 1840 he engaged
in the packing business, which he successfully conducted until 1869, when
he was burned out; and to him belongs the honor of being the pioneer
packer in the city of Chicago.
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
39
In 1830 Mr. Hubbard married Elmira Berry, daughter of Judge Be.Ty,
of Urbana, Ohio, and who was a most estimable lady. She died in 1838.
Gurdon S. Hubbard, Jr., a substantial businessman of the city, is the only
surviving child. He was born February 22d, 1838.
Such, in brief outline, has been the busy and useful life of Gurdon S.
Hubbard. At the age of seventy-eight years, but looking much younger,
his memories are more numerous, varied, and interesting than are usually
crowded into the space of two long lifetimes. Still in the enjoyment of
health and of remarkable vigor, there is abundant reason to believe that he
will live many years to receive the grateful acknowledgments of poster-
ity for what he has done for Chicago, and to enjoy the universal respect
in which he is held by the community.
PHILO CARPENTER.
Perhaps the most delicate and difficult duty which the biographer has
to perform, is to paint the picture of a life, which is as a morning sunbeam
that carries life and gladness into gloomy caverns and places of desolation
of which the world knows nothing. What men 'see of such a life is charm-
ing and elevating to a degree that the imperfections of the race are almost
shadowed into forgetfulness, and yet, brilliant as is the exterior, there is a
still more beautiful inwardness, which is securely hidden from the common
gaze. In a life which has been distinguished for its consecration to the pro-
gress of the world and the alleviation of human suffering, there is the
private record of kind words spoken, of gentle sympathy bestowed and
of acts done, which are never confided to even the most intimate.
In sketching the life of Philo Carpenter we are met with difficulties
of this character, and however graphically that portion which is not con-
cealed might be portrayed, there would be the feeling that merit still lay
beyond, untouched and unfortunately untouchable. Happily there is always
enough of interest and example, lying upon the surface of such lives, to
make them not only thrillingly entertaining but incalculably valuable
to the world.
Philo Carpenter is of New England origin, having been born at
Savoy, Berkshire county, Massachusetts, February 2yth, 1805, and edu-
cated in the common schools, and at the Academy at South Adams, in his
native State. Until he obtained his majority he remained at home,
under the influence of New England surroundings, to which, no doubt,
may be attributed much of his sterling worth of character. It would,
however, be unsafe and untenable to assume that New England is entitled
to the credit of laying the entire foundation of a life which has been marked
by such excellent characteristics of head and heart. Although doubtless
much indebted to training, Mr. Carpenter has been richly blessed with
inheritance. His father, Abel Carpenter, was the son of Nathaniel Carpen-
ter, whose love of justice and admiration for right, prompted his resignation
of a captaincy in the British army, at the outbreak of the revolutionary
War, and led him into the military service of the Colonies, in which he was
a faithful officer to the end, being at the close of the conflict in command at
West Point. It scarcely need be suggested that this sacrifice of position
and emolument for the privilege of engaging in what was anything but a
hopeful conflict, and in courting a possible ignominious death, indicates the
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 41
source from which the subject of our sketch inherited the courage which
he has always shown in the advocacy and defense of principle. Fortunate
is the man who can boast of such an ancestry.
In 1828 Mr. Carpenter, with his wealth of early training, rich natural
endowments, and aspirations to reach position, left his home and went to
Troy, New York. Here he became a clerk in the drug store of Dr.
Amatus Robbins, and a student in medicine. Later he was a partner of
Dr. Robbins in the drug business, and was pleasantly and prosperously
situated. Probably Chicago would never have been blessed with his
influence and enterprise had it not been for a romantic friend who in his
travels had visited the settlement, and returning, gave Mr. Carpenter a most
glowing description of the probable future importance of the place. The
description and prophecy of his friend decided him to emigrate to the
West. Boxing up his stock of drugs he started for Buffalo, where he em-
barked in the steamer Enterprise, under command of Captain Walker,
for Detroit. Upon arriving there, he took passage in the wagon which
carried the weekly mail to Niles, Michigan, and from there floated, with a
friend, down the St. Joe river to its mouth upon a lighter. It was not
expected that it would be difficult, after reaching this point, to get to Chi-
cago by means of the occasional vessel communication with Fort Dearborn 5
but the cholera was at the time raging among the soldiers at the fort, and
all communication had been suspended. Under such circumstances, Mr.
Carpenter and his friend hired two Indians to take them around the head
of the lake, and the two emigrants succeeded in landing in the month of
July, 1832, near the present site of Douglas monument. From here they
were conveyed in an ox team by Joel Ellis — whom they found living in
a. log cabin near the place — to Fort Dearborn.
Mr. Carpenter was now where was to be his new and permanent home.
Not more than two hundred people were outside the fort, and these were
mostly half breeds. Precisely what our subject thought or felt upon this
introduction, may never be known except to himself, and probably never
will be. It was a startlingly weird scene to a man of his birth and rearing,
and but for dauntless courage and keen perception he never would have
remained.
During the few weeks that he was waiting for his goods, however, he
calmly studied the whole situation, and, with the foresight that has
distinguished him since, decided that Chicago had a brilliant future in
store. Accordingly he secured a log building on Lake street, near the
river, and opened the first drug store in Chicago. He removed from this
location in the early Winter to more commodious quarters, but remained in
them only until the following Summer, when he built and occupied a store
on South Water street, between LaSalle street and Fifth avenue. Here
he added to his stock, salt, sugar, hardware, and other staples, and his store
became the center of attraction to a large section of the surrounding country.
From this store he removed, in 1842, to one on Lake street, which he
•occupied for some years, and then disposed of his mercantile business.
42 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
Mr. Carpenter has been, and is now, a large real estate owner in the
city, and has been fortunate in his investments in this line; but his success
has been the result of a firm regard for the principle that debt is an evil.
He invested his spare funds in lots, but never involved himself beyond his
ability, under all circumstances, to satisfy his creditors, and leave himself a
handsome margin. Besides the purchase of private property, he entered
from the government one hundred and sixty acres in the West Division,
and was laughed at for locating a farm so far from the city. That farm has
since been known as "Carpenter's Addition to Chicago," and is now
bounded by Halsted, Madison and Kinzie streets and by a line running
from Kinzie street midway between Ann and Elizabeth streets to Madison.
Much of this property has passed from the hands of Mr. Carpenter, but he
is still the owner of considerable valuable real estate.
During all his useful life in Chicago Mr. Carpenter has been a warm
and active friend of education and religion. On the nineteenth of August,
1832, he organized the first Sunday school ever founded in Chicago,
with thirteen children and five adults. This school is now represented
by the home Sabbath school of the First Presbyterian Church, and
is one of the monuments which will commemorate the name of Philo
Carpenter. In 1832 his interest in education, as well as his sound judg-
ment, was manifested in his opposition to the proposed sale of the entire
School Section, bounded by State, Madison, Halsted and Twelfth streets.
Against his protest, however, one hundred and thirty-eight blocks were
sold for thirty-eight thousand and sixty-five dollars. Four blocks remained,
and they are now worth several million dollars. What his advice, if it
had been followed, would have been worth to Chicago and education,
can readily be estimated. For many years he was an active member of the
Board of Education, from which he retired in 1865, and in recognition of
his valuable services, one of Chicago's elegant school structures was named
the Carpenter School.
Mr. Carpenter was a fearless opponent of human slavery while that
institution existed in this Republic, and never hesitated to aid a slave to
escape from bondage. When to be an abolitionist was to be considered an
enemy to the best interests of the nation, his love of freedom and humanity,
and his correct conception of what a patriot's duty to his country was,
emboldened him to devote much of his time and to expend his money to
mak<^ the American Republic what it purported to be, a land of universal
freedom. But he paid the penalty for his boldness in the advocacy of right,
in various ways. Even the hand of the church, which should always be deli-
cate, became harsh as it touched the anti-slavery advocate. Mr. Carpenter-
was one of the originators of the First Presbyterian Church, and one of its
first elders. Afterward he connected himself with the Third Presbyterian
Church, and while here he experienced treatment, which, since his anti-
slavery views have been acknowledged as correct by the nation, Presbyteri-
ans, no doubt, heartily wish had never been given. The General Assembly
had been dealing with the slavery question in a very equivocal manner, anJ
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
43
Mr. Carpenter's church becoming wearied of its vacillating policy, resolved
in 1851 that "God hath made of one blood all nations of the earth; that
chattel slavery is blasphemous toward God and inhuman and cruel to our
fellow men ; that this church is dissatisfied with the position of our General
Assembly on the subject of disciplining those guilty of holding our fellow
men in bondage, and that this church, so long as this vacillating policy is
pursued, hereby declare their determination to stand aloof from all meet-
ings of the Presbytery, Synod and Assembly." This action brought down
upon the heads of those who voted for the adoption of the resolutions the
wrath of the Presbytery, which voted that they had disqualified themselves
to act as members of a Presbyterian Church. Thereupon Mr. Carpenter
and others organized the First Congregational Church, which now worships
in the beautiful structure at the corner of Ann and Washington streets.
The Congregational denomination is much indebted to the subject of our
sketch, who has contributed over fifty thousand dollars to its Chicago
Theological Seminary, besides his munificent gifts to his own church.
In addition to these brilliant features of his life Mr. Carpenter has
always been a firm friend of temperance, and in 1832 wrote and circulated the
first total abstinence pledge in Chicago. But while laboring to advance
the temperance movement, he has always been a firm opponent of the secret
societies which have been organized in the name of that worthy cause.
Indeed he is opposed to all secret societies, and has fought them all through
his life, expending a great deal of money in the endeavor to break their
influence.
Mr. Carpenter has been twice married. His first wife was Sarah F.
Bridges, whom he married in May, 1830. She died in the following
November. His second wife was Ann Thompson, of Saratoga county,
New York, to whom he was married in April, 1834. She died in 1866.
Of four children, three daughters, Mrs. W. W. Cheney, Mrs. W. W.
Strong and Mrs. Edward Hildreth are living and reside in Chicago.
A son, Theodore Carpenter, died in 1869, in the twenty-fourth year of
his age.
We thus close this brief sketch of a life which has been signally
eventful, and which has been distinguished by the finest traits of human
character. Philo Carpenter, in his advanced years, is a monument to the
worth of human life, and a pattern for the rising generation to imitate.
As long as Chicago shall have an existence, the name of Mr. Carpenter
will shine in the brightest of its history.
44
JOHN M. VAN OSDEL.
The character of the representative American is always a fruitful and
entertaining study. It is the picture of genius, enterprise and expedients,
ceaselessly operating amidst difficulties and against formidable obstacles,
toward the successful accomplishment of most wonderful results. The
development within a century of one of the most powerful nations in the
world; with deserts blooming with flowers; prairies and marshes golden
with the harvest; cities whose architecture is as beautiful as those ancient
piles of granite splendor of which the historian delights to write and
the poet sing; railroads spanning the rivers and scaling the mountains;
the telegraph flashing living thought into every hamlet and over the
ocean's bed; and a government whose foundation is liberty, equality, intel-
ligence and virtue, such a nation is a proud monument to the worth of
individual American character. Our marvelous progress as a nation is the
outgrowth of marvelous individual character. Yet even here, as in
the world at large, individual failures are more numerous than individual
successes. Where one achieves distinction a thousand live and die un-
known; where one leaves a fadeless impress of his genius upon the world,
a vast multitude touch the earth like a zephyr and subside into oblivion.
From the beginning of the world until the present men distinguished in
any of the walks of life, have not been so numerous that any of them have
been lost sight of, or escaped the pen of* the biographer. Worth of
character and the brilliancy of genius never pass unacknowledged or
uncotnmemorated; and while the fame of John M. Van Osdel, the pioneer
and distinguished architect of Chicago, does not depend for perpetuity
upon anything that may here be written, as a type of the zeal, industry
and ability which has made Chicago and the Republic, and to satisfy the
reasonably anticipated desire of posterity to read of the men who have
left their mark upon this almost miraculous metropolis, in every work that
refers to its rise and progress, to sketch Mr. Van Osdel's life is irresistible
as a pleasure, and imperative as a duty. As an architect whose genius
has planned some of the most beautiful of our structures, and whose light
has been reflected in the architecture of the city since 1836, his own mind
and hands have erected more substantial and commanding monuments to
a claim to distinction, than any language can erect upon the page of written
history.
Mr. Van Osdel is a native of Maryland, having been born in Balti-
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 45
more July 3ist, 1811. His father, James H. Van Osdel, was a carpenter,
and to this circumstance, together with the school of instruction which it
afforded for the development of his naturally mechanical turn of mind,
Mr. Van Osdel doubtless owes much of his success as a professional archi-
tect. But this description of immediate ancestry — so honorable in a
country where merit is the only recognized title to distinction — would
convey the impression of humble* origin to those who are fascinated by the
glitter of titled position in the old world. But the direct line of ancestry
of the Van Osdel family traces back through two and a quarter centuries
in our own country, and for more than six hundred and fifty years in
Holland. The family derive their origin from Jan Van Arsdale, Knight
of Holland, who in 1211 erected the castle Arsdale, from which he took
his name. From him descended Lyman Jansan Van Arsdalen — as he
subscribed himself — who emigrated to the State of New York in 1653,
and he was the founder of all the Van Arsdales and Van Osdels in
America. He died in 1710, leaving two sons, Cornelius and John, and
from the latter our own Mr. Van Osdel is descended.
The subject of our sketch was the eldest of eight children, whose
support, when he was only fourteen years of age, through unavoidable
circumstances, devolved upon his mother. In the Spring of 1825 his father
went to New York — leaving the family in Baltimore — to engage in the
business of building. After, a time he was disabled by an accident, and
remittances for the support of the family ceased. The mother had not
long toiled to feed and clothe the children before John, young as he was,
comprehended the situation, and with the industry and enterprise which
has since distinguished him as a citizen of Chicago, undertook the support
of the family. He purchased a pine board, and from it manufactured
stools, which he peddled among the neighbors. With the profits he
purchased more material and repeated the sales, realizing a handsome per
cent, above the cost of his products. Such a boy was destined to become
a man that the world would honor; and he was pre-eminently the material
that the future Chicago would require to make it the elegant result of
little more than forty years' effort.
Upon the recovery of the father the family removed to New York,
and our subject began to work regularly, under his father, at the business
of carpentry. His spare moments he devoted to reading books in the
Apprentice's Library of that city, devoting himself almost exclusively to
books on architecture, copying their designs, and thus becoming proficient
in drawing. When seventeen his mother died, and the family was broken
up. He now secured his release from obligation to his father, and soon
returned to Baltimore, where he engaged in the business of architect and
builder. In 1836 he returned to New York, and formed the acquaintance
of William B. Ogden, who induced him to remove to Chicago. Upon
his arrival here he was first employed by Mr. Ogden as a master builder,
but his marked architectural ability soon induced Mr. Ogden to impose
upon him the responsibilities of an architect, and as such he designed the
46 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
most beautiful residence for Mr. O^den, on Ontario street, that for a long
time graced the city.
Although enjoying as flattering a patronage, as an architect, as he
could desire, the failing health of his wife — whose maiden name was
Gailer, and whom he married at Hudson, New York, in 1832— induced
him, in the Autumn of 1840, to return to New York. While in New
York he was an associate editor of a journal which is now known as the
SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, and which he helped to establish by careful wrork
and mechanical attainments. In 1841, however, he returned to Chicago,
and has since been uninterruptedly .connected with its prosperity or its
adversity. In 1843 ne engage(l m the iron foundry business, in which
he continued until 1845, when the death of his wife, and his own impaired
health operated to turn him from this business into his original profession
of a designing architect. His masterly skill was rewarded by an income
of thirty- two thousand dollars for three years' service. Mr. Van Osdel,
since that early date in Chicago's history, has designed not only some of
the finest buildings in the city, but also in the State. . The most elegant
of private i-esidences — such, for instance, as that known as the Schuttler
residence, on the corner of Adams and Aberdeen streets — and a good pro-
portion of our finest business houses, not noting our public buildings
previous to the fire of 1871, were designed by him.
After the great fire the services of Mr. Van Osdel were in such de-
mand that it was impossible for him, even with his large corps of assist-
ants, to accept all the business that was offered. During the two following
years he designed and superintended the erection of business blocks, aggre-
gating a frontage of eight thousand feet, including twenty-five corner
buildings, among which were the Tremont House, Reaper Block, D. B.
Fisk & Company's store, the Drake Block, etc. Such exhaustive applica-
tion to professional duties, were too much even for his robust constitution,
and his health gave way in the Spring of 1874, necessitating a season of
rest. To seek this he visited Europe in company witjj his wife and two
adopted daughters. Returning home in the Spring of 1875, with health
restored, he resumed the practice of his profession with renewed activity.
Our subject was married a second time to Martha McClellan, the
daughter of James McClellan, of Kendall county, Illinois. His domestic
and professional life has always been as a voyage upon the surface of a
placid water. With an abundance of means, which have been wholly
accumulated through his own efforts, he has always been one of the most
liberal and kind hearted men in the community. Without ostentatious
display, his charities have been large and numerous, and what is still better,
dispensed in such a delicate manner that they have usually been devoid of
the appearance of charity. His aim has simply been to use his fortune to
make mankind happier. Relatives who have been less fortunate than he,
have often been the recipients of his bounty ; but the very brightest page
in his biography, perhaps, is that which records the adoption of four
children, three girls and one boy. Without children of his own, he
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 47
adopted this course that others might be benefited by his fortune. The
boy died, but the three girls have developed into beautiful and accom-
plished women, who are the pride of their father. Some twelve years
since one was married to J. A. Schafer, and received from Mr. Van Osdel
a house worth six thousand dollars. Although seventy years old, Mr.
Van Osdel's step is as elastic as that of a man of forty; his eye is }'et
undimmed by the years, and he still prosecutes with vigor the business of
which he has been so long master.
WILLARD FRANKLIN MYRICK.
Willard Franklin Myrick, the seventh of a family of eleven children
born to Zenas and Eunice Myrick, was born at Addison, Addison county,
in the State of Vermont, on the eleventh day of July, 1809. At the close
, of the last century many of the industrious and enterprising farmers in
the State of Connecticut thought folks were getting crowded in that land
of steady habits, and pushed off into the State of Vermont. Zenas
Myrick was of the number; on the shores of the beautiful Champlain,
a short distance from the historic grounds of Ticonderoga and Crown
Point he settled, and here the subject of our sketch was born.
Zenas Myrick was not lacking in the spirit of the Green Mountain boys
of '76, and of old Put. of his native State, for on the call for volunteers
in the war of 1812, he shouldered his musket, was enrolled in the ranks
of his countrymen and participated in the memorable battle of Plattsburg.
Here, on the banks of this beautiful lake, amid the scenes of so many
stirring incidents of our Revolutionary struggle, and in daily contact with
many who had borne part therein, the son passed his boyhood. At the
age of twenty-two, with a good common school education, and plenty
of nerve, industry and enterprise, and little else, he started out for him-
self. He first located at London, Canada, where he remained five years.
In September, 1836, he started on horseback for Illinois, crossing the
Detroit river at Detroit, and traversing Southern Michigan, he arrived at
Chicago the following October. At that time Chicago was a village of
a few hundred inhabitants, but even at that early day it was a point in the
great West. Here he remained for a few weeks, and then went down
on the Illinois river below Joliet, where he remained until the next Spring,
when he returned to Chicago.
Shortly after his return, he bought what was called a squatter's claim
to a tract of land which, according to present divisions of the city, is
bounded on the north by Twenty-sixth street, on the west by South Park
avenue, on the south by Thirty-first street, and on the east by Lake
Michigan. This was what was then known as canal property; there
was a two story dwelling thereon, situated near the lake and just south
of what is now Twenty-ninth street, which was kept as a hotel,' and
known as the Empire House. A portion of this old building is now
standing on Cottage Grove avenue, nearly opposite Hahnemann College.
The Empire House was much frequented by farmers and drovers from
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 49
that portion of Illinois and Indiana lying south and southwest of Lake
Michigan. Mr. My rick purchased this property from the canal trustees
as soon as it was offered for sale, and has ever since resided thereon.
On the tenth day of July, 1839, he was married at Chicago to Jane
Hill, his present wife, and shortly thereafter they moved into the hotel,
changed its name to that of Myrick House, and kept the hotel for the
next fifteen years. In 1854 Mr. Myrick built the house where he has
since resided, at the corner of Thirtieth street and Vernon avenue.
Mr. and Mrs. Myrick recall with pleasurable interest their early life
in the old hotel on the lake shore. Probably greater changes have never
been witnessed in a single lifetime than has passed before them. When
they took up their residence in the hotel, the road thence to the village
of Chicago ran at random along the lake shore; the country north and
west was an open prairie; the nearest house on the north was the residence
of H§nry B. Clark, on Michigan avenue, between Sixteenth and Eighteenth
streets, which was removed to make room for St. Paul's church; there
was only one other house south of VanBuren street. On the west there
were no houses east of what is now called Bridgeport; here some shanties
were located on the bank of the south branch of Chicago river. It was
no uncommon circumstance for persons starting from the village of Chicago
for the Myrick House on dark nights, to get lost on the prairie; even Mr.
Myrick himself sometimes with difficulty found his own home, when
coming from the village. After some such experiences, his wife was
careful to put a bright light in an upper window when he was absent on
cloudy nights.
In those early days operas, theatei's, fashionable receptions, calcium
lights and modern fashionable frippery were not greatly in vogue, but
the round of a Winter's gayety consisted in old fashioned tea parties and
countiy balls, where they danced old fashioned dances, ate old fashioned
doughnuts and mince pies, and had a jolly time generally.
The Ten Mile House, a large, rambling wooden building on the
Vincennes road, kept by John Smith, was for many years a favorite resort
for dancing and sleighing parties, and has probably witnessed as much
thorough enjoyment as any building in or near Chicago. Here Ike Cook,
Frank Sherman, the founder of the Sherman House, Asher Rossiter and
very many of the older citizens of Chicago still living, have had many
a gay frolic.
In those days the telegraph was not; Chicago was not then lorded
over by what have been called " blanket dailies," and hotels and stores
formed the places of exchange, where the wise and otherwise, the new
comer and the old inhabitant exchanged their ideas, or as a modern
reporter would say, "swapped lies."
Mr. Myrick relates with great gusto one affair which made quite
a little stir at the time. In the office of the Myrick House some one
broached it as a strange fact that a live fish placed in a tub of water would
not increase the weight of the tub of water. Mr. Myrick pronounced
^o CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
this absurd and offered to wager ten to one that it was not so. He was
taken up, and a bet of one hundred dollars to ten made on the spot. The
discussion was lively, outsiders were consulted by the advocates of the
original proposition, others took up the notion and bet their money, until
finally Mr. Myrick had wagered twenty-five hundred dollars against one-
tenth of that sum, that the original statement was not correct. It was
proposed to decide the matter by an actual test. Accordingly a live fish
weighing some four or five pounds was caught in the Calumet river;
a procession was formed headed by a brass band, and the fish in this man-
ner was carefully transported to the Myrick House, where with due care
the test was made. Of course Mr. Myrick won the money, which was
paid over amid the shouts and laughter of the bystanders.
Mr. Myrick has always been fond of good horses, and to-day enjoys
nothing better than a brush on the road, in which amusement he is gener-
ally successful, even in a city possessing as many fast trotters as Chicago.
Mr. and Mrs. Myrick have always been noted for their hospitality
and benevolence; they have for very many years been among the managers
and staunchest supporters of the Orphan Asylum, and Mrs. Myrick has
been a directress of the Soldiers' Home since the charity was instituted.
Any notice of this life, already prolonged beyond the allotted three
score and ten, would be incomplete which omitted mention of his extreme
fondness for children. Amidst five little grandchildren in his own home
he is supreme. Any attempt to usurp his place at the table beside a little
black eyed, two-year-old granddaughter is the signal for an outbreak that
cannot be quieted until the intruder vacates. The little folks that cannot
talk always manage to lead him to the pantry when hungry.
For thirty years past his health has not been good, and for this reason
he has during that time led a retired life. He has, however, taken the
deepest interest in public affairs, always votes, and has all the love of country
characteristic of citizens of his native State. Secession and disunion were
of all things most hateful to him, and he is devotedly attached to the
party that overthrew those political dogmas. Well preserved in years he
still remains one of the early settlers of Chicago.
CHAPTER VI.
GROWTH IN POPULATION AND COMMERCE.
Sometime in the far future, when in the repetition of history, disaster
and desti'uction may have fallen upon beautiful Chicago,' and the centuries
hence may have nothing but a faint shadow of the name playing upon the
passing moments, it can readily be conceived that the stray record of the
city's growth, which may chance to be gazed upon, will be scanned with
as much astonishment as that which fills the soul when the beauty of the
excavated streets and parlors of long buried Pompeii are beheld. Broken and
battered antiquity is always charming. We are idolaters of the hoary past.
We fondly linger wherever death has left a footprint, or time has made a
ruin. We love to contemplate the things and people that were, but with
whose ashes the winds of centuries have been sporting as if they had never
glowed with life, significance or beauty. Nor does it matter how insig-
nificant the character of the relic is; our souls are fascinated. It may be
a human bone or an obelisk — if it is old, it is alluring. But when to age is
added magnificence, or a startling history, the mind worships, doubts, tut
worships all the time it doubts, and then accepting the record as true, or
the magnificence as real, gives play to imagination to complete the picture
which the centuries have in many parts effaced. So it will be ten centuries
hence, when fate may have made the site of Chicago a more dreary waste
than it has been painted upon any of the preceding pages. But should
such be the history at that distant future, would not the growth of a city's
population from three thousand to a half a million in forty-four years, excite
temporary incredulity ? Yet this is a fact which time may lose sight of,
but can never efface.
In 1835 the population of Chicago was 3,265; in 1836, 3,820; in 1837,
4,179; in 1838, 4,000; in 1839, 4,200; in 1840,4,479; in 1841,5,752; in
1842, 6,248; in 1843, 7,580; in 1844,8,000; in 1845, 12,088; in 1846,14,169;
in 1847, 16,859; in 1848, 20,023; in 1849, 23,047; in 1850, 28,269; in 1851,
34437; in 1852, 38,733; in 1853, 60,652; in 1854, 65,872; in 1855,80,028;
in 1856, 84,113; in 1857, 93,000; in 1858, 90,000; in 1859, 95,000; in 1860,
112,172; in 1861, 120,000; in 1862, 138,835; in 1863, 160,000; in 1864,
169,353; in 1865, 178,900; in 1866, 200,418; in 1867, 220,000; in 1868,
252,054; in 1869, 273,043; in 1870, 298,977; in 1872,364,377; in 1874,
395,408; in 1876, 430,200; in 1878, 459,060, and in 1880, 503,278.
Judging the future by the past, and remembering that Chicago is
UNIVERSITY OF
ILLINUIS LIBRARY
AT URBANA CHAMPAIGN
cr2 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
becoming more and more the great center of commerce and travel, and
more and more the center of the world's admiration, it is difficult to attempt
to conjecture what the population will be in a hundred years. Some who
are competent to judge, as far as any one is capable of judging the future,
predict that a hundred years from now Chicago will have a population of
four millions. It is possible, but while there is every indication that the
city will become exceedingly populous, and will really be the central point
in the nation, it lacks seaboard advantages. This, however, it is expected
.the great railroad system centering here, and Diverging to all points, in-
land and seaward, will largely compensate for. This is eminently a railroad
age; and the people who are in possession of a network of railways,
spanning the continent, and reaching almost everywhere, have reason
to hope to successfully compete with the people who live upon the seashore,
especially if they have no vast expanse of fertile prairie to sustain them.
It is probable that the population of Chicago would be considerably
larger at this date, had there not been serious drawbacks to settlement and
to the permanency of those already settled, in the early history of the city.
Cholera seemed to have marked the place, and was reluctant to release its
grip. Beginning among the soldiers at the fort as noted in a previous
chapter, it made its appearance the second time in the history of the place,
in 1848. At this time many immigrants were arriving in the country from
Europe, and the dread disease was prevailing in sections of that continent.
Conning from New Orleans, the immigrants brought the disease to Chicago,
and the epidemic spread, until during the year one in thirty-six of the entire
population died, making a total of six hundred and seventy-eight deaths.
In 1850 cholera again appeared, at which time four hundred and sixteen
died of the disease. Cholera appeared in 1851 and in 1852, but its ravages
were slight. In 1862 the pestilence again mowed a black swath of
death through the city, and each of these calamities could but retard the
increase of population, but to what extent they really did retard it can never
be determined. Probably thousands whose attention was attracted hither,
delayed their proposed coming until the desire to come had been extin-
guished, or they sought other homes. Be that as it may, the growth of
Chicago's population is one of the most astonishing things that the history
of the world presents among its various wonders. If we go a few years
further back than the date which has been selected in this chapter as the
starting point for the record of the increase of population, and note the
days of very small beginnings — details of which have been given in other
chapters — the contrast between then and now is almost bewildering to
contemplate. Eighteen hundred and eighty finds a city which has fairly
reached greatness from nothing at a single bound, and yet a city which
confidently believes, and has reason to believe, that it is but in infancy in
magnificence and power as it literally is in age.
Increase of population of course necessitated an increase of commerce,
the commencement of which was so insignificant that but for curiosity there
would be danger of its being entirely lost sight of in the midst of the busy
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
53
life in the trade marts of to-day. During the year 1831 three vessels arrived,
one of which came to carry away the troops from the fort, but as material
for the construction of a basis of Chicago's great and growing commerce is
so meager, it is, perhaps, pardonable to notice the appearance of all three
vessels, under the head of commercial growth. In fact only one of the
three — the Telegraph, from Ashtabula, Ohio — brought a stock of goods.
In 1832, George W. Dole purchased two hundred head of cattle on the
Wabash river, and slaughtered them here, and during the year slaughtered
three hundred and fifty hogs, thus inaugurating the business which has
brought so much wealth into this city. This beginning was considerably
improved upon during the next year when five hundred and seventy-eight
cattle and two thousand and nine hundred and ninety-six hogs were
slaughtered and packed. The year 1834 witnessed a decided recognition
of the increasing importance of Chicago, as a commercial point, in the
arrival of one hundred and fifty vessels, which discharged cargoes. On the
eleventh of July, also, the Illinois, the first large vessel that had ever entered
the harbor, sailed in amidst the plaudits of the people. The packing of
this year amounted to one thousand cattle, and six thousand and four hun-
dred hogs, which was done by Archibald Claybourne, Newberry & Dole,
and Gurdon S. Hubbard. The number of vessels which arrived in 1835
outnumbered the previous year's arrivals by one hundred, and this average
of five vessels a week began to give the town an air of decided commercial
dignity. But when during the next year four hundred and fifty-six vessels
with a tonnage of sixty thousand arrived, there was a feeling among the
people that greatness had been unmistakably thrust upon them. Sylvester
Marsh erected a new packing house, this year, on Kinzie street near Rush,
which he continued to occupy until 1853. The imports in 1836 were valued
at $325,203.90 and the exports at $ 1,064. These exports were hides. In 1837
the imports amounted to $373,677.12, and the exports, consisting of hides,
pork and beef to $i 1,665.00. In 1838 the imports were valued at $597,974.61,
and the exports $16,044.75. This year witnessed the first shipment of grain
— seventy-eight bushels of wheat — which was made in a steamer called the
Great Western. The firm shipping this wheat also shipped in the same
steamer $ 1 5,000 worth of hides. During the year also, Absalom Funk shipped
beef and pork to the value of about one thousand dollars. "In 1839," says
Professor Colbert, "the number of exporters had increased to eight, who
sent forward produce to the value of $45,843, including $15,000 in hides
$ 1 1, ooo in provision products, and 16,073 bushels of \vheat, besides corn
and flour." In 1840 the value of wheat, beef, pork, flour, tallow, salt,
beans, wool, flax seed, hides and furs exported was $223,883. In 1843 the
exports amounted to $350,000. The first Custom House registry is dated
April 6th, 1845, and was the schooner Congress from Port Huron with
lumber. During this year the number of boats of different kinds which
arrived here was 1,320.
Perhaps, however, the commercial development of Chicago cannot be
better shown — and that rather than too close attention to comparatively
54
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
unimportant details, is the object — than to here insert the following tables,
taken from the report of Charles Randolph, Secretary of the Chicago
Board of Trade. They show, step by step, the remarkable advancement
of the business of Chicago for' the series of years named, and following the
years is like advancing from the foot of a steep mountain to its top. It is
true, the record of the years is not invariably upward, but that would not
be expected. Various causes operate in the history of every place to make
some years less prosperous than others, and that fact is never accepted as
evidence of even a tendency to a general decline. Chicago's prosperity
may sometimes have been checked, .but in every instance it has been a
sleep through which fresh vigor was obtained, to make still grander achiev-
ments possible. The first table shows the aggregate annual shipments
of flour and all kinds of grain since 1838, the time when, as before noted,
the grain business was begun:
Year.
Flour,
barrels.
Wheat,
bushels.
Corn,
bushels.
Oats,
bushels.
Barley,
bushels.
Rye,
bushels.
1818 .
6320
13 752
28045
3253S
45 200
5i 3°9
100 871
72 406
61 196
70984
in 627
163 419
216 389
259 648
470 402
686351
698 132
i 603 920
1 739 «49
i 522 085
1 285 343
i 293 428
1 S>8i 525
1 015 455
2 399 619
2 339 063
i 705 977
i 287 574
i 361 328
2 303 490
2 306 576
2 285 113
2 634 838
2 482 305
2 779 640
3 °9° 54°
78
3670
IO OOO
40 ooo
586 907
688 967
891 894
956860
1 459 594
i 974 304
2 160 ooo
I 936 264
883644
437660
635996
I 206 163
2 3«6 925
6 298 155
8 364 420
9 846 052
8 850 257
7 166 696
12 402 197
1 5 835 953
13 808 898
10 793 295
10 2150 026
7 614 887
10 118 907
10 557 123
10 374 683
13 244 249
16 432 585
12 9°5 449
12 106 046
24 455 657
27 634 587
23 184 349
14 361 950
14 909 160
24211 739
31 006 789
67 135
55° 460
644 848
262 013
3 221 317
2 757 on
2 780 228
6 837 890
7 5i7 625
1 1 1 29 668
6814615
7 726 264
4 349 360
13 700 113
24 372 725
29 452 610
25 051 450
12 235 452
25 437 241
32 753 181
21 267 2O5
24 770 626
21 586808
17 777 377
36 716030
47 013 552
36 754 943
32 705 224
26 443 8S4
45 629 035
46 361 901
59 944 200
61 299 376
38896
65 280
26 849
158084
605827
2030317
i 748 493
3 239 987
i 888 538
i 014 637
506 778
i 519079
i 185 703
i 091 698
1 633 237
3 112 366
9 234 858
1 6 567 650
ii 142 140
9961 215
10 226 026
14 440 830
8800646
8 507 735
12 151 247
12 255 537
i5 694 i33
10 561 673
10 279 134
II 271 642
12 497 612
16 464 5i3
13 514020
3i 452
22872
. 19 997
79818
1 20 267
148411
92 on
19051
J7993
132 020
486218
267 449
226 534
532 195
946 223
345 208
607484
i 300 82 1
i 846 891
901 183
633 753
2 584 692
2 908 113
5 032 308
3 366 041
2 404 538
i 868 206
2 687 932
4 213 656
3 520 983
3 566 401
'73'S
82 162
41 '53
19326
591
7569
134 404
1 56 642
393 813
871 796
651 094
893 492
999289
1 444 574
i 213389
i 202 941
798 744
913 629
i 325 867
776805
960013
335 077
310 592
i 433 976
i 553 375
2 O25 654
2 224 363
iS-iQ. .
1840. .
1841 . .
0^
1842
184^. .
1844. .
184?
1846
1847. .
1848. .
1840. .
1850
18:51
i8q2. .
i8w .
1854 .
i8s«;. .
1856
18^7. .
1858. .
181:9..
1860
1861
1862
1 861 .
1864. .
i86s
1866
1867. .
1868
1869. .
1870
1871. .
1872. .
iST'l. .
1874. .
1875. .
1876
1877. .
1878. .
1879
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
55
The yearly receipts of leading articles of commerce since 1852 were:
Year.
Beef,
pkgs.
i 189
207
i 697
12427
225
481
695
6223
1 747
3 "3
781
2806
9249
19791
787
3475
4534
1478
20 554
53289
14512
7i58
36 670
26949
37 202
9359
2 5°6
4367
Pork,
barrels-
Other Cured
Meats,
pounds.
Lard,
pounds.
Butter,
pounds.
Wool,
pounds.
181:2 .
3270
ii 250
25 7oi
29 265
13298
8918
26570
24533
ii 1 20
32 495
66953
97 "3
41 190
53 198
15382
35922
34797
45 248
40883
68 949
121 O23
43 758
39695
49205
45 704
35249
33 073
64 389
i 937 237
8 993 903
14 492 OI2
9 628 445
10 323 463
6 252 228
8 007 064
6 700 612
12 728 328
15 254013
29 336 4°6
36 756 28l
17 018 277
10866 118
8 463 598
14 693 767
7 °55 814
2O 930 202
52 162 88 1
30 150 899
48 256 615
58 782 954
50 629 509
54 445 783
63368011
62 031 670
103 130 326
i si 131 767!
67793
888 568
4 38o 979
471 062
821 827
2 1 70 2OO
3 144600
3916251
4 813 4°7
6 841 940
'9 764 315
25 683 722
13 259 628
7 501 805
8 553 358
ii 030478
6 050 065
6 804 675
7 711 018
17 662 798
19911 797
26 57i 425
24 HS 225
21 982 423
33 620 928
27 236 359
37 748 958
75 754 "7
i 327 100
812 430
2 M3 569
2 473 982
2 668938
3 039 385
3 166 923
8 819 903
7 492 028
9 126 825
3 816 638
5 5°3 630
10 224 803
ii 682 348
13 231 452
H 574 777
22 283 765
28 743 606
21 868 991
33 941 573
41 989 905
48 379 282
54 623 223
770 294
i 030 600
751 838
i 969299
i 853 920
i 116 821
i 053 626
918 319
859 248
i 184 208
1 523 57i
2 831 194
4 304 388
7 639 749
1 2 2OO 640
ii 218 999
12 956 415
8 923 663
14751 089
27 026 621
28 181 509
34 486 858
45 018 519
49 476 091
57 099 828
45 602 839
43 428 403
48 890 540
i8^. .
1854. .
i8s5. .
i8<;6 .
1857 .
1858..
1859
1860. . .
1861
1862
1863
1864
1865..
1866. . . .
1867
1868
1869
1870
1871
1872
1873
1874
1875..
1876 .
1877. .
1878. . . .
1879. .
Liq.and
Year.
Hides,
Seeds.
Salt,
H. Wines
Coal,
Lumber,
Shingles,
pounds.
pounds.
barrels.
barrels.
tons.
feet.
number.
1852
i 294 630
618 ooo
91 674
7441
46233
147 816 232
77080500
1853
i 274311
2 197 187
8 1 789
8487
38548
202 101 078
93 483 784
1854
i 430-326
3 °47 949
l69 556
i733i
56 775
228 336 783
82 061 250
1855
1 557 436
3 023 238
169 946
18433
109 576
306 547 401
108 647 250
1856
3 527 992
2 843 2O2
175 687
30 ooo
93020
456 673 169
135 876 ooo
1857
5 439 284
2 257 223
204 473
28185
171 350
459 639 *98
131 830 250
1858
ii 606 997
4 271 732
334 997
38644
87 290
278 9-13 ooo
127 565 ooo
1859
12 685 446
5 241 547
316291
29431
131 204
382 845 207
165 927 ooo
1860
ii 233918
7 071 074
255 148
62 126
131 080
262 494 626
127 894000
1861
9 962 723
7 742 614
390499
8991 5
184 089
249 3o8 705
79 356 ooo
1862
12 747 123
8 176349
612 203
61 703
218423
305 674 045
131 255000
1863
J7 557 728
9 885 208
775 364
T37 947
284 196
413 301 818
172 364 875
1864
20 052 235
10 180 781
680346
102 032
323 275
501 592 406
190 169 750
1865
19 285 178
H 745 34°
611 025
32 435
344 854
647 145 734
3io 897 350
1866
20 125 541
13 618 858
496 827
60 202
496 193
730 057 168
400 125 250
1867
23 522 066
23 962 397
492 129
30812
546 208
882 661 770
447 039 275
1868
25 132 260
25 503 i So
686 857
61 933
658 234
i 028 494 789
514434100
1869
27 5J5 368
22 803 545
524321
129 478
799 ooo
997 736 942
673 166 ooo
1870
28 539 668
18 681 148
674 618
165 689
887 474
i 018 998 685
652 091 ooo
1871
2 5 026 034
20 234 146
703 917
1 20 969
081 472
i 039 328 375
647 595 ooo
1872
32 387 995
44 755 412
606673
163991
398 024
i 183 659 280
610 824 420
1873
36 885 241
52 813 468
651 506
J24 715
668267
i 123 368 671
517 923000
1874
1875
52 287 674
52 357 244
73 192 773
75 885 230
687 239
706588
156 712
117 786
359 496
641 488
i 060 088 708
i H7 J93 432
619 278 630
635 708 120
1876. . . .
55 484 514
96 890 420
906 965
"9999
619 033
i 039 785 265
566 977 400
1877
52 549 095
1 20 1 70 080
i 327 028
82 427
749091
i 066 452 361
546 409 ooo
1878 .
44029421
*33 960 391
i 382 197
76294
832 033
i 180 586 150
692 544 ooo
1879
56 610 510 169 772 521
i 461 233
93771
- ,vs t 974
i 469 878 991
670 644 ooo
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
The yearly shipments during the same period were as follows:
Year.
Beef,
pkgs.
Pork,
barrels.
Other Cured
Meats,
pounds.
Lard,
pounds.
Butter,
pounds.
Wool,
pounds.
Hides,
pounds.
lSs2
53965
64499
56 H3
55 79°
23794
44402
49530
123 932
85 563
50 154
151 631
137 302
140 627
103064
67762
84622
75424
48 624
65369
89452
399"
33938
72 562
60454
73575
82 050
67 757
110431
10 976
29 809
5i 542
77623
52 104
30078
80859
92 218
91 721
65 196
193 920
449 152
298 250
284 734
257 47o
176851
HI 321
121 635
165 885
149 724
208664
191 144
231 35o
3i37i3
3*9 344
296 457
346 366
354 255
i 446500
9 266 318
5 189 725
6 401 487
13 634 892
3 463 566
9 272 450
i5 935 243
59 748 388
71 944 oio
95 300 815
50055322
55 026 609
73oii 584
82 325 522
95 106 106
86 707 466
112 433 168
163 113891
245 288 404
343986021
262 931 462
362 141 943
467 289 109
'479 926 231
747 269 774
835 629 540
I 2OO OOO
i 847 852
2 5969J 2
I 803 900
3908700
5 280 ooo
7 232 750
10325019
16 400 822
54 505 123
58 030 728
42 342 97o
28 487 407
26 755 368
27 211 225
23 527 821
17 278 520
43 292 249
61 029 853
86 040 785
89 847 680
82 209 887
115 616 093
138 216 376
147 ooo 616
244 323 933
251 020 295
577 388
609449
i 056 631
297 748
309550
512 833
5 927 769
5 206 865
8 503 321
2 926 239
3972021
5 898 391
6 493 H3
11049367
" 497 537
12 851 303
16 020 190
19 249 081
34 140 609
37 OI° 993
44 5°7 599
51 262 151
920 113
953 zoo
536 79i
2 158 462
575908
fi 062 88 1
'i 038 674
934 595
839 269
i 360 617
2 101 514
3 435 967
7 554 379
9 923 069
12 39i 933
ii 293717
13 101 162
8 273 924
15 826 536
24 35i 524
27 720 089
32 715 453
39 342 721
51 895 832
6 1 145 966
45 346 422
43 009 697
47 5i3 638
2 396 250
2 957 200
2 158 300
3 255 750
9 392 200
8 609 200
8 693 862
16413320
14863514
12 277 518
*5 3i5 359
23 781 979
27 656 926
20 379 955
23 234 79i
27 739 °99
29310038
25 600808
27 245 846
22 462 864
28 959 292
30 725 408
48 780 931
55 867 904
59 102 027
56 622 694
Si 875 447
61 381 778
i8c-?
i8<u .
I8S5. .
1856. .
181:7 .
i8q8. .
iSsQ. .
1860
1861
1862
1863. .
1864. .
1861;..
1866
1867
1868
1860. .
1870
1871
1872 .
1873..
1874. .
1871;
^1876
1877
1878
1879
Year.
Seeds,
pounds.
Salt,
barrels.
Liq. and
H. Wines
barrels.
Coal,
tons.
Lumber,
feet.
Shingles,
number.
i8ea
12 853
2 185 269
2 109 832
3484013
2 828 759
i 537 948
4 027 846
4 647 960
6 055 563
7 438 485
6 165 221
7 754 656
ii 782 656
7514928
13316210
19 058 921
*5 870950
12 217 398
6287615
14 213 989
22 358 542
25 76l 324
43 3i5 623
55 428 491
82 344 295
106 944 994
95 441 270
J33 566 596
59333
38785
9i 534
107993
83601
90 918
191 279
257 847
172 963
319 140
520 227
579694
483 443
444827
452 537
455 740
524014
535 626
571013
450 138
5J3 850
581 167
657 295
683 292
779 676
809 098
841 092
867 954
16 242
7027
8013
6 335
6266
10654
28 007
29529
65 223
in 240
loo 170
I593I2
138 644
'66053
65995
49250
69 535
156404
176508
171 031
169 564
141 348
162 917
168 149
139°5I
148 802
164 605
176038
i 441
2 988
5068
12 153
16 161
23942
15641
16886
20364
20 093
12917
15 245
16779
24 190
34066
69 170
83399
95620
1 10 467
96 833
177 687
243 637
252 872
365811
249 862
271 176
305 694
527 844
70 740 271
88 909 348
133 131 872
215 585 354
243 387 732
311 608793
242 793 268
226 120 389
225 372 34°
189 379 445
189 277 079
221 709 33o
269 496 579
385 353 678
422 313 266
5i8 973 354
551 989 806
58i 533 480
583 490 634
541 222 543
4*7 827 375
561 544 379
580 673 674
628 485 014
576 124 287
586 722 821
626735 "8
753 i7983o
55 851 038
71 442 550
92 506 301
*34 793 250
115 563250
*54 827 750
150 129 250
195 117 700
168 302 525
94 421 1 86
55 761 630
102 634 447
138 497 256
258 35i 450
422 339 715
480 930 500
537 497 074
638317840
666 247 775
558 385 350
436 827 375
407 505 650
370 196651
299 426 936
214 389 575
170410785
123 233000
146 820 450
iRei
181:4
IS;;
j8c6
l8?7
i8s8
iSso
1860
1861
jS62
186^
1864
i86<;
1866
!867
1868
j869
1870
1871
j872
1877 .
1874
187?
i8-j6
1877 .
1878..
1879
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
57
In this connection, and as a means of convenient reference, the follow-
ing table showing the annual beef and pork packing, from March first to
March first, since 1859-60, is inserted:
Season.
Number of
Cattle
Packed.
Number of
Hogs
Packed.
Season.
Number of
Cattle
Packed.
Number of
Hogs
Packed.
18159-60. .
51 606
34624
53763
59687
70086
92459
27 172
25 996
35348
26950
151 339
271 805
505691
970 264
904659
760514
507 355
639 332
796 226
597 954
1860-70
ii 963
21 254
16080
i5 755
21 712
4I 192
63783
Not reported.
it ti
688 140
919 197
i 225 236
i 456 650
i 826 560
2 136 716
2 320 846
2 933 486
4 009 311
4 96o 956
1866-1
1870-1
1861-2
1871-2
1862-3
1872-3
1861-4- •
IS73-4
1864-15
l874-C
18615-6
18715-6 ....
1866-7....
1876-7
1867-8
1877-8
1868-9
1878-9
There are two very important articles of commerce which are not
included in any of the tables, the reason of which is that they have not
been prominent until within the last few years. These are butter and
cheese. The West is now crowding the East in dairy products, and as
a matter of course, the receipts and shipments are not only large, but are
constantly increasing, and this great and growing industry is destined to
play a very conspicuous part in creating wealth for Chicago. In 1879 the
receipts of butter were 54,623,222 pounds, and of cheese 32,590,519 pounds,
and besides these large quantities of both articles were shipped by express,
and no correct record was kept of such shipments, necessitating only a
partial report of the receipts in Secretary Randolph's annual report for
1879.
What the Board of Trade has contributed to this marvelous prosperity
is actually realized by but a very few. Considered by many well-meaning
and intelligent people as an enemy to the public interest, and by many
others as a selfish and corrupt combination of men, the denunciation of it
has often exceeded anything that could possibly be considered reasonable;
and while it no doubt contains an element whose absence would make it
richer in character and more efficient in influence, as a body it is com-
posed of the most enterprising, patriotic and generous men that any com-
munity would recognize as among the foremost of its citizenship. The
very name suggests an association of men who are the life of a city — the
men who conduct its industries. To be false to the city, or to those who
feed the commerce of the city, would simply be suicidal to their own best
interests. In some of the prominent towns of our best Territories there is
no government except the board of trade. Helena, Montana, a town of
six thousand inhabitants, has shown the good sense to stem the current of
Western notions — which are in favor of organizing an expensive city gov-
ernment upon a very small taxable property — and has committed the
government to the county authorities and to the Helena Board of Trade.
Why should they not do it? If the merchants of a town or city — the men
who own the stores and the merchandise in them — are not ready to protect
58 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
themselves and their property, who can be expected to do it? And if they
afford this protection, the community will be peaceable and all will be safe.
The Board of Trade of Chicago is not invested with, and lays no claim to,
governmental powers, but it is nevertheless a power. When it speaks its
voice is for the sanctity of human life and for justice, political, social and
commercial. Its aim is to protect the property and preserve the good order
of Chicago.
In the Spring of 1848 Thomas Richmond and W. L. Whiting sug-
gested the necessity of organizing a board of trade. The subject being
broached by these gentlemen to other business men it was decided to issue
a call for a meeting of the merchants, to be held in the office of Mr. Whit-
ing on the thirteenth of March, 1848. The call was published in accordance
with this decision, and was signed by Wadsworth, Dyer & Chapin, George
Steele, I. H. Burch & Company, Gurnee, Hayden & Company, H. H.
Magie & Company, Neef & Church, John H. Kinzie, Noi'ton Walker &
Company, DeWolf & Company, Charles Walker, Thomas Richmond,
Thomas Hale, and Raymond, Gibbs & Company. At the meeting assem-
bled in pursuance of this call, it was voted that a necessity existed for the
establishment of a board of trade, and a constitution was adopted, and a
committee appointed to prepare by-laws, with instructions to report at an
adjourned meeting, which was voted to be held on the first Monday of the
following month. At this adjourned meeting the report of the committee
on by-laws was adopted, and officers were elected. The first President
elected was George Smith, but he declined to serve, and Thomas Dyer was
chosen to fill the vacancy. Rooms were hired in South Water street at
a hundred and ten dollars a year. After the organization of the Board it
did very little for a long time. In 1849 the legislature passed an act of
incorporation, and the Board was formally organized under it in 1850. The
registry of members in the following year showed a membership of
thirty-eight, but it was seldom that any of the members assembled for
the transaction of business. The organization was but a name, and some
of the members did not even think it worth the annual assessment of three
dollars which was made upon each member. What a change has been
wrought! From that insignificant beginning the Board has risen to the
dignity and power which has already been ascribed to it, and its member-
ship is now seventeen hundred and seventy-three.
v
JAMES HENRY PEARSON.
Sixty years ago there resided at Haverhill, in the county of Grafton,
State of New Hampshire, a family which was most highly esteemed in
the community, and the head of which was one of the most enterprising
and public spirited citizens of the State. It was the family of. Isaac
Pearson, better known as Major Pearson, the father of the subject of this
sketch. He was engaged in lumbering, saw and grist milling, woolen
manufacturing and farming, and until the period from 1842 to 1844 was
a prosperous and well-to-do business man. But honest himself, and of
a generous disposition, he confided too implicitly in the honesty and
business abilities of others, a mistake which induced him to endorse the
paper of neighbors, and which cost him his comfortable fortune at the period
named. His good name, which he cherished more fondly than wealth,
was left him, however, and that he maintained unsullied to the end of his
life. Major Pearson was twice married, first to Charlotte Merrill, a
daughter of Major Merrill — who was prominent in that section of the
State at an early date — and by whom he had two children; one of whom,
Merrill Pearson, is still living, and now resides in Bloomington, Illinois,
and at this date is seventy-five years of age. His second wife — the mother
•of our subject — was Charlotte Ather.ton, whom he married May 28th, 1818,
and by whom he had nine children. Major Pearson after a long and
useful life, died February I3th, 1854, and Charlotte Pearson, his widow,
died February I9th, 1868, in the seventy-fifth year of her age.
James Henry Pearson was born at Haverhill, New Hampshire, on the
tenth of December, 1820. All of the children received a fair common
•school education, and two or three of them were fitted for teachers. James
Henry spent his early days in his native town, and besides 'attending
the common schools was also a student at the Academy at that place.
When fifteen years of age he went to Boston, Massachusetts, and entered
a retail dry goods store on Washington street, as a clerk, where he
remained for about two years, when he returned again to his home and
attended the Haverhill Academy for two more terms. This finished his
education, which owing to his dislike of study, and a restlessness to enter
upon an active business life, was not as perfect as the facilities he had
enjoyed would warrant.
Naturally gifted with a business talent, at the age of twenty-one he
took charge of his father's affairs, which were in an exceedingly chaotic
6o CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
state, a condition resulting from the endorsements before alluded to-
Renting the farm and saw mill, young Pearson took a contract for getting
out railroad ties, timber and wood, and he and the brothers kept the family
together until 1849, when he made a settlemerA with his father, mother
and brothers, and removed to South Hadley Falls, Massachusetts. Previous
to this removal, however, he was married — April loth, 1850 — to Sarah
Elizabeth Witherell, daughter of George Witherell, of Haverhill, New
Hampshire. Business in his new home not proving as prosperous as he
desired, he remained here only about four months, starting in June, 1851,.
for the West, leaving his wife to follow as soon as he should become
settled. Desiring to enter into the lumber business, he came to Chicago,,
arriving here in the month of July, 1851, his wife going to Eastern
Massachusetts to remain with a friend until such time as his permanent
settlement would warrant her coming West.
Before leaving for the West, however, Mr. Pearson visited his native
town, and while here he was greatly surprised one day while passing the
house of John Page, then Governor of the State, to be summoned by
the Governor to enter. The Governor said to him : "I understand you
are about to go into the Western States where you will not likely be
known as well as you are here, and I have prepared a paper for you to
take with you, Henry," as he called him; "put this in your pocket, it will
not do you any harm, and it may help you among strangers." The
paper read something like this: "The bearer, J. H. Pearson, is a woithy
young man of our town, who is about to go West to engage in business,
and we, the undersigned citizens, would heartily recommend him to be
an honest and trustworthy young man and of good business talents and
very ambitious. He is a good accountant and understands the lumber
business, and can do most anything he turns his hand to. Any one wish-
ing to employ him will find him a competent young man. Respectfully,,
signed, John Page, John L. Rix, John R. Redding, Nathan Felton,
Jonathan Nichols, James Bell, Jacob Bell and some others." Young
Pearson was astonished at this unexpected and unsolicited testimonial.
He put this paper into his pocket, and it was all or nearly all the capital
he had, save between six hundred or seven hundred dollars in currency,,
when he landed in Chicago. But that paper was excellent capital, and he
never proved unworthy of its representations. Governor Page and others
who signed that unsolicited recommendation, have visited Chicago and
stopped with him numbers of times, doubtless feeling much satisfaction
and pride in the results which they aided to accomplish. He has visited
his old native town nearly every year, always to the delight of the peo-
ple in whom his life and character so early inspired confidence.
In the month of September following his arrival in Chicago, he
went down on the Illinois river to the town of Henry, Marshall county,
and started a country lumber yard, the firm of Chapin & Butts, then in
the lumber business here, giving him some credit on lumber. In the
Winter season he also bought corn on the ear for and on account of John.
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 6]
P. Chapin, cribbing it until Spring, when he shelled and delivered it to
canal boats for the Chicago market, there then being no communication
with this city except by river and canal.
In the Spring of 1853 he disposed of his business in Henry and
came to Chicago, engaging in the lumber business with Colonel Josiah
L. James, formerly of the firm of James & Hammond. The new firm
was James & Pearson, and they started a new lumber yard on Clark
street, next to Flint & Wheeler's, afterward Flint & Thompson's, elevator.
The elevator was built that season, with the expectation that the Chicago
and Rock Island railroad would come into the city at that point, and
James & Pearson located there in consequence of that belief. The firm
took a long lease of the dock on the river of Hugh Mayher, who at that
time was a large property owner in that locality. In 1854 Mr. Mayher
purchased Colonel James' interest in the lease and also his lumber interest,
whereupon the firm became Mayher & Pearson. At the expiration of
a year from the formation of this co-partnership, business in that locality
began to improve very rapidly, and the lease being very valuable, Mr.
Pearson disposed of his interest in the business and the lease, securing
him quite a little capital with which to start business on his own account.
In the year 1855 he leased the ground and dock on the corner of Mar-
ket and Madison streets, where the Union Block now stands, and the
firm of J. H. Pearson & Company was organized, William T. Powers,
of Grand Rapids, Michigan, being the silent partner. After being in
business here for two years, Mr. Pearson went to the west side of the
river, just opposite his former location, where he remained two years,
doing business under the firm name of Pearson & Messer. In 1857 the
firm removed to Market street, where Robert Law's coal yard is now
located. In December, 1857, Mr. Messer died, and in January, 1858,
Webster Batcheller purchased the interest formerly owned by him in the
business, and the firm became Pearson & Batcheller, which continued
business in that yard until the Spring of 1862, when Mr. Batcheller, in
consequence of ill-health, went to California, and Avery, Murphy & Com-
pany, of Port Huron, Michigan, bought his interest. The business was then
removed to the Stowel slip on Clark street, where the firm was Pearson,
Avery & Company, and it occupied the whole slip from Clark street to
the main river, making one thousand feet of dock frontage, which was
the largest yard at that time in the city. The firm of Pearson, Avery
& Company continued in business until the Spring of 1866, and during
these years it did a very successful business, making money rapidly, which
furnished facilities for the prosecution of other enterprises. In the mean-
time— in the Spring of 1865 — Mr. Pearson purchased a half interest in
a saw mill in Saginaw City, Michigan, and entered into co-partnership
with A. W. Wright, the firm being A. W. Wright & Company in Sagi-
naw, and the next year J. H. Pearson & Company in Chicago. They
were together in business from 1865 to 1875 or 1876, and the firm owning
quite a large tract of pine lands, manufactured lumber, which it shipped
62 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
to Chicago, doing a very remunerative and exceedingly satisfactory busi-
ness.
In the Spring of 1871 the yard in Chicago was sold to Elisha Eldred
& Company, near Polk street bridge, and in tne Fall of the same year
it was all swept away by the fire, so J. H. Pearson & Company very
fortunately lost by the great fire only about fifteen thousand dollars, the
most of the loss being fire insurance stock, and the balance about one
hundred and fifty barrels of syrup, which the firm had then just bought
and stored on the North Side near Wells street bridge, on a speculation.
Mr. Pearson's residence at the time Of this great calamity, was on the
corner of Washington and Sangamon streets, and was, therefore, beyond
the fire limit. He still resides in the same locality.
Mr. Pearson is a prominent member of the First Congregational
Church, now on the corner of Washington and Ann streets, he having
united with this church July 4th, 1858. He is one of its officers and has been
for a number of years, and has taken quite an active part in all the enter-
prises of the church, besides contributing liberally toward its construction
and support. He has also been benevolent in building up a large number
of other churches and mission schools in this city. He has always been
held in the highest esteem in the church and society, and his aid and
sympathy has always been confidently relied upon in all religious work.
Mrs. Pearson is also a prominent member of the same church, having
united in 1857.
Our subject has a wife and four children — three sons and one daughter.
The oldest son, Arthur L., was born in Henry, Marshall county, Illinois,
January 2Oth, 1853; the next oldest, Eugene Henry, was born in Chicago,
June 1 3th, 1854; the only daughter, Helen Grace, was born October 8th,
1858, and the youngest child, Robert Nelson, was born July 6th, 1864.
Arthur L. is giving evidence of a conspicuous talent for art, and is now
in Paris engaged in study with a view of becoming an artist. The next
oldest son is in the lumber and salt business with his father in Saginaw,
Michigan, the firm being J. H. Pearson & Son. Helen Grace Pearson
was married to Charles P. Gladwin, of Philadelphia, June 26th, 1877,
and Mr. Gladwin died December 26th, 1877, after which Mrs. Gladwin
returned to Chicago, and is now, with her daughter, residing with the
family of Mr. James H. Pearson.
The life of Mr. Pearson has been one of great business activity,
unusual success, fidelity to duty and of unclouded honor. His record —
in which any man would feel a pride — has been made in Chicago, and is
consequently a part of the history of the great city. Prominent in that
large and influential circle, the lumber dealers, an officer in the Union
Trust Company Bank, forward in works of Christian benevolence, and
upright and honorable in all the relations of life, he is of that class of
citizenship upon which a community wholly depends for the realization
of its greatest possibilities. In politics he has never been conspicuous
but as a citizen who fully realizes the duties and responsibilities of citizen-
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 03
ship, he never fails to deposit his ballot on election day for the candidates
of the party with which he has always voted since the decay of the old
Whig party, and which he believes to be the political organization which
embodies the most good for the nation — the Republican. In every
respect his life has been a success, and while he keeps his own counsels as
to the amount of his wealth, it is known that he is a large owner of bank
stock, the owner of a large property in Saginaw City, of great tracts of
pine land in Michigan, real estate in this city, besides his large business
interests, and he is variously estimated to be worth from four hundred to
seven hundred thousand dollars.
BENJAMIN L. ANDERSON.
The lumber trade is one of the vast industries which have distinguished
Chicago and made her great and powerful. Like the city itself it has
sprung within a few years from the most insignificant beginning into
immense proportions and almost limitless influence; and the men who
have built up such a source of profit and renown in this community have
been and are among the most substantial of its citizenship. Among the
most prominent of these is Benjamin L. Anderson, the subject of the fol-
lowing sketch — a man who has deeply impressed the business with the
energy of his own character, and contributed his full share in moulding
the robust commercial character of the city in which he has lived for
more than a quarter of a century. The magnificent results of his life
have been the legitimate fruits of great natural endowments largely
trained under -his own judicious instruction, and of well directed enter-
prise. Like so many other representative Chicagoans, he is indebted
solely to himself for the success which he has achieved, and which is
a monument to the most desirable and most useful traits of human char-
acter. During the years in which he has been engaged in creating the
large business interests of which The B. L. Anderson Company is now
the representative, the sunshine and the flowers have not uninterruptedly
made the picture in which he was a prominent figure. These pages detail
common adversities in which if any class suffered more than another, it
was those which represented the more important commercial interests
and had control of the heaviest business. But through them all Mr.
Anderson maintained an unflinching courage, and with an unshaken faith
in the future permanent greatness of Chicago, bade defiance to discour-
agements, and patiently waited in the midst of the night for the morning
and in the midst of the cloud for the sunshine. Of English nativity he
has always shown that steadiness of character and tenacious and intelli-
gent perseverance which distinguish Englishmen, and which are of such
inestimable value to their possessor under the usual circumstances attend-
ing the development of a new community like our Chicago and the
West. But for these, in addition to his natural abilities and spotless
integrity, Mr. Anderson, instead of being a representative of a most
important and prominent commercial class, and an influential citizen,
would have been numbered with the multitude whose opportunities were
as great as his, but having less courage, less determination and less faith
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 65
in the possibilities of Chicago, dropped out of the conflict, being remem-
bered, if at all, only as lamentable failures. In the midst of these many
failures, our battle scarred veterans of commerce, who have stood as
steadily at the wheel when the waves ran high and perils were the most
imminent, as when the most delightful calm rested upon the surface of the
waters, approach so nearly to the character of heroes that the community
is pardonable for entertaining for them a reverence as well as gratitude.
It is to such men that Chicago owes her existence, her matchless rapidity
of development and the permanency of her glory.
Benjamin L. Anderson is the son of John and Sophia Anderson, and
was born at; Wisbech, county of Cambridge, England, September 23d,
1833. The Anderson family to which he belongs, though English for
three generations preceding his, were Scotch-Quakers who at that time
intermarried with the French Huguenots, who fled from France and
settled in England; and from that union of those two elements of Scotch
and French sprang the remarkable characteristics of the Anderson
family. The childhood of Mr. Anderson was spent in his native town,
where he received a common school education, which he completed when
only twelve years of age, and went out into the world to commence the
battle of life. Naturally observing and quick to learn, however, his
education was by no means ended when he left the schools of Wisbech.
On the contrary, he was an apt scholar, and never permitted the oppor-
tunities for increasing his knowledge to pass unimproved, a course which
resulted in his obtaining a fine business education and a general informa-
tion, which are not often surpassed. When only fifteen years of age he
occupied the responsible position of book-keeper, serving in that capacity
for seven years, and exhibiting the business traits of character which have
since developed so prominently and guaranteed the success which he has
achieved in later life. As a book-keeper the young man was faithful to
details, industrious and conscientious, features of character which in after
years he never permitted to be subordinated to any other.
In 1855, when only twenty-two years of age, our subject came to
Chicago and immediately entered the employment of one of the oldest
firms then and now in the trade, remaining with them until 1866, when he
engaged in the business for himself, which he has prosecuted from that
time until the present, his company being one the leading firms in our
city. Upon matters concerning the trade his judgment is deemed authority,
and his unimpeachable integrity clothes his opinions with unquestioned
influence. No man in the trade stands higher in the estimation of his
business associates, in evidence of which he always occupies a conspicu-
ous place in their councils. At the present time Mr. Anderson holds the
office of director in the Lumber Exchange, and in less prominent positions
is constantly rendering valuable services to the general business.
Mr. Anderson was married at Chicago, June 23d, 1858, to Eliza
Cooke, also a native of Wisbech, England. Five children have blessed
this union, three of whom are still living, their names and ages being as
66 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZKNS.
follows: William Braim, now in his twenty-second year; George Henry,
in his seventeenth year, and Lucretia, in her twelfth year. In his domestic
relations Mr. Anderson is highly blessed, and his elegant home presents
a scene of happiness and refinement which is not surpassed in any home
in our metropolis. Properly appreciating the importance of a faithful
discharge of the private duties of life, as a husband he is considerate and
as a father exemplary; in fact he is guided in his family and social inter-
course by the same undeviating regard for principle that distinguishes
his actions in his business relations. His candor and honesty in any sphere
in which duty calls him are always prominent.
The success of this life has been exceptional, as success, comparatively
considered, always is; but really brilliant though it has been, Mr. Ander-
son is still a young man, with years of opportunity yet before him, and
it is reasonable to suppose that what he has already achieved is scarcely
more than a foundation for future probabilities. Such enterprise as his
grows stronger and broadens with age; such abilities become more alert
as they mature, and such attributes of heart constantly win wider confi-
dence and yet warmer esteem. In the years that are to come we may
expect, therefore, to see a still deeper impress made upon the commercial
and social character of Chicago by this already representative citizen
than that which he has already stamped upon it.
JOHN HUME KEDZIE.
»
It is the express wish of the subject of this sketch that the space
allotted to him should be mainly occupied in rescuing from oblivion and
placing on record what is now authentically known of his ancestry on
both sides, with a slight reference by way of adding interest to what is
traditional. And as tradition comes before history, we will commence
with the traditional. We will premise the fact, however, that the name
in early times was variously spelled as Kadge, Cadge, Kadzie, KaidzieT
Kedzie, Kadzow, Cadzow and still other forms, as shown on an ancient
monument, dating back three hundred years^ into the reign of Queen
Elizabeth, still standing in the central part of the kirkyard of Carnwath,
which has been devoted to this family for centuries. There is now a town
seven miles west of Carnwath called Kilcadzow, named from this family,
where many of their descendants still live. But, to the family traditions.
During the fourteenth century, in the reign of Richard II, of England,
and Robert II, house of Stuart, of Scotland, the Kadges or Cadges — after-
ward Kadzies, Kedzies, Kedies and Cadzows — dwelt in Craig-Nethan
castle, owning and holding possession of contiguous territory for miles
around. When they gained this possession is not known. After holding
possession for generations, they were dispossessed, probably in the troubles
arising when Charles II attempted to force prelacy on Scotland, to which
the occupants of Craig-Nethan made strong resistance, and in consequence
met with persecution.
Craig-Nethan castle, now in ruins, stood near the village of Cross-
ford, in Lanarkshire. It was situated a mile south of the Clyde, on the
west bank of the river Nethan. Being built before the invention of gun-
powder, it was designed to be defended with arrows, spears and swords,
and has, growing on its esplanade, very ancient yew trees from the timber
of which bows were made. The exterior walls of the castle form, nearly
a square, being a little longer from north to south thaji from east to
west. They are from four hundred and fifty to five hundred feet in
length on each side. On the east side, sloping toward the Nethan, is
a beautiful esplanade with its yew trees. The width of this is three hundred
feet. Then comes a series of precipices, each forming a descent of from
thirty te fifty feet, till the river is reached, one thousand feet away and
three hundred feet below. The entrance to the castle is an oblique way
on the west side. The exterior wall >. iwenty feet high and six feet thick.
68 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
The middle part of the wall is seventy feet high. This top is reached
by stone steps on the inside, and was used as a lookout. All this exterior
wall is mantled with ivy a foot thick, and, in the season, is alive as a nest-
ing place for sparrows.
Inside this wall, and built against it, is a continuous line of rooms.
These are in ruins, except on the southwest corner, where lives the farmer
who cultivates the adjacent lands. Next to this series of rooms is a walk
and carriage way, extending clear around. The inside of this is marked
by a second wall, five feet high and two feet thick, surmounted with stone
images, life size, of men, animals and hybrids in grotesque shape and
position. Inside this is a beautiful pleasure-ground, and in the center of it
is the castle hall, built and arched with stone and pierced for the admission
of light. At the middle of the south end, built into the wall and extend-
ing into the pleasure grounds, is an edifice of stone. Within it is a well
three hundred feet deep, descending to the level of the Nethan and Clyde.
It is descended by a flight of polished stone steps, built into the side of the
excavation. This well was evidently to afford water in time of siege.
The castle is a reality, but the connection of the Kadzies, afterward
Kedzies and Kadzows, rests upon traditions current in the neighborhood of
Carnwath among the descendants of this family. The descendants of this
family have stronger ground however, for pride of ancestry, if this be
justifiable, in the character of the Kedzies in Scotland dating back two
hundred years. For that period they have tteen known as men of high
intelligence, honest farmers, staunch Presbyterians and sturdy opponents
of prelacy.
Prompted by the desire to better his fortunes, Adam Kedzie, the
grandfather of the subject of this sketch, with his wife, Margaret Stewart,
and their eight children, Betsey, George, Nancy, James, Janet, William,
Isabel and Adam, came to this country from Hawick, Roxboroughshire,
Scotland, in the year 1795. They settled in Delaware ecu ity, New York,
From this family have sprung all the Kedzies in this country. As a speci-
men of the brawn, both of muscle and willf which characterized that
generation, as well as affording a clew to their religious character, we will
relate an anecdote of Mrs. Margaret Stewart Kedzie, named above. Aftei
arriving at their destination in Delaware county, it became necessary for
some one to go back to Catskill to look after their luggage. Mrs. Kedzie
started at five o'clock in the afternoon and walked to Catskill, fifty miles,
arriving there before breakfast next morning. Having transacted her
business, she found an opportunity to ride back the next day, which was
Sunday. Rather than break the Sabbath she remained over, attended
church, and providing herself with religious tracts to distribute on '*•-<*
road, she started home on foot Monday morning.
Robert Hume, the maternal grandfather of Mr. Kedzie came over with
his family in the same vessel with the Kedzies. All that has been said of
the Kedzie family in early times, can with equal truth be said of the
Humes. Though it is probable that they were only remotely, if at all,
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 69
connected with the Earls of Hume, still a few extracts from the GAZETEER
of Scotland in regard to Hume Castle will be interesting:
"The castle and the seat of the potent Earls of Hume, and one
of the chief objects of antiquarian research in Berwickshire, was, about
seventy years ago, in so prostrate a condition as to exist only in vestiges,
nearly level with the ground. But it was in a rude sense restored by the
last Earl of Marchmont. At least some walls of it were re-edified and
battlemented, and seen from a distance, it now appears, from its far seen
elevation, to frown in power and dignity over the whole district of the
Marse and a considerable part of Roxboroughshire, and constitutes a very
picturesque feature in the center of a wide spreading landscape.
The castle figured largely in the history of the times preceding the
Restoration, and comes prominently, or at least distinctly, into notice toward
the close of the thirteenth century. The family of Hume sprang by
lateral branches from the powerful and noted E;irls of Dunbar. In 1650,
immediately after the capture of Edinburgh Castle, Cromwell dispatched
Colonel Fen wick at the head of ten regiments to seize the Earl's Castle
of Hume. In answer to a peremptory summons to surrender sent to him
by the Colonel at the head of his troops, Cockburn, the Governor of the
Castle, returned two missives, which have been preserved as specimens
of the rollicking humor which occasionally bubbles up in the tragedy
of war. The first was:
RIGHT HONORABLE: — I have received a trumpeter of yours, as he tells me,
without a pass, to surrender Hume Castle to the Lord Cromwell. Please you, I never
saw your General. As for Hume Castle, it stands on a rock.
Given at Hume Castle, this seven o'clock. So resteth without prejudice to my
native country. Your humble servant, T. COCKBURX.
The second was expressed in doggerel lines, which continue to be
remembered and quoted by the peasantry, often in profound ignorance
of the occasion when they were composed:
I, Willie Wastle,
Stand firm in my castle,
And a' the dogs o' your town
Will not pull Willie Wastle down."
The subject of this sketch was the son of James Kedzie and 'Margaret
Hume, born in Stamford, among the hills of old Delaware, September
8th, 1815. He worked on the farm in the Summer and went to the com-
mon school in the Winter, until he was seventeen. At eighteen he
commenced to teach in district schools in Winter, and "boarded around."
He remained with his father on the farm till the mortgage was raised,
good buildings erected and a snug sum put out at interest, when he sought
to gratify his taste and desire for a liberal education. He pursued his
preparatory studies in part at Oneida Institute, Delaware Institute and
Western Reserve College, and graduated at Oberlin, Ohio, in "1841, com-
pleting the four years course in three. After teaching in academies for
several years and studying law in the meantime, he was admitted to the
bar in New York, in the Spring of 1847, and came immediately to
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
Chicago, where he arrived on the seventh of July, 1847, with seven dollars
in his pocket. He at once entered on the practice of his profession, which
he continued until his real estate investments required his whole attention.
Without pecuniary assistance from any one he has for some time been
reckoned as among the solid men of Chicago.
On the fifth of July, 1850, he was married to Mary Elizabeth Austin,
of Cairo, New York, a lady of rare beauty and loveliness. She died
July i6th, 1854. ^7 her he had one child, Mary Elizabeth, born June
3Oth, 1854, and died August 3Oth, 1855. He was married again June iyth,
1857, *° Mary Elizabeth Kent, daughter of Reverend Brainard and Lucy
B. Kent, who is still living and needs no eulogy. By her he has had five
children, viz: Kate Isabel, married to George Watson Smith, born June
23d, 1858; Laura Louise (Pet Lulu), born July 3d, 1859, died November
I9th, 1864; Julia Hume, born December 29th, 1860, died November 24th,
1864; Margaret Frances, born February i5th, 1867, and John Hume, Jr.,
born March 3d, 1872.
His brothers and sisters are as follows: Adam, Allison Hume, Mar-
garet Stewart, Isabella Bunyan, Robert Hume, Elizabeth Bunyan, George
Lawson and Jane Ann, of whom only Allison, Isabella and George sur-
vive. Mr. Kedzie has for the past twenty years resided in Evanston, a
suburb of Chicago, where he has served several terms on her local boards.
In 1877 he represented his district as a Republican member of the Thirtieth
General Assembly of Illinois. His residence was burned December 9th,
1873, which he replaced with one of the most elegant residences in Evanston.
On the thirty-first of December, 1880, this also was destroyed by fire. In
conclusion we quote from a printed census of the Kedzie family:
"No Kedzie is known to have been arrested as a violator of the civil
law, to have been intemperate, or dependent on charity, or paid less than
one hundred cents on the dollar, and none have reached the early years
of adult life without having become a member of the church."
7
HART L. STEWART.
Few men, in the evening of a long life, have so little to regret, and so
much to be satisfied with, as General Hart L. Stewart. For these many
years his active mind and diligent hand have been prominent figures in
the development of the great Northwest, and his unimpeachable character
has shone throughout like a fadeless, never-setting star. Still youthful in
spirit, clear in intellect, and cordial in intercourse with the world, the
influence of his life is like that of a morning sunbeam. Easily approachable,
he would be as attentive to the request of a child, or to a worthy appeal for
sympathy, as he would be to an invitation to dine with a prince. Reserved,
yet responsive to the "heart-throbs of his kind; rich in dearly-purchased
experience, but willing to impart to others what he has learned; crowned
with laurels which an eventful and honorable life has won from his fellow
citizens, yet unassuming; preserving the dignity of an old school gentle-
man, yet democratic in sentiment, General Stewart is an exceptionally
charming figure in the picture of busy, bustling Chicago.
General Stewart was born in Bridgewater, New York, August 29th,
1803. His early life was spent at home, and from the time he was twelve
years of age until he was seventeen, he assisted his father in clearing a
large acreage of timbered land in Genesee county, New York, which
he had purchased from the Holland Land Company. Upon attaining the
age of seventeen, however, he began the study of law, but his father being
unable to support him, he was compelled to abandon his studies, after a
year's application. Upon reaching his majority he became an extensive
contractor on public works, and he and his brother, Alanson, who was
connected with him in business, were called the "boy contractors." The
firm's handiwork can be seen on the New York and Erie canal, the Ohio
canal, and the Pennsylvania canal ; and the tunnel through the branch
of the Allegheny mountains on the Conemaugh river was constructed
by these young men.
On February 5th, 1829, our subject was married to Hannah Blair
McKibben, of Franklin county, Pennsylvania, and immediately thereafter
removed to Saint Joseph county, Michigan, he having previously visited
the locality and purchased a thousand acres of land^on White Pigeon and
Sturgis Prairie. He carried with him from distinguished men the most
laudatory letters of introduction to Lewis Cass, then Governor of the
Territory, which at once secured the confidence of that official, who com-
fj2 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
missioned Mr. Stewart a Colonel of militia, and requested his aid in
organizing the then unorganized southern portion of the Territory.
Through Colonel Stewart's efforts the government established a postal
route between Tecumseh and Niles, locating ten or fifteen offices, and the
contract for carrying the mail was transferred by the original contractor to
Colonel Stewart and his brother Alanson. The proceeds of the offices on
the route were the compensation for the service.
In 1832 Colonel Stewart was appointed Judge of the County Court
of Saint Joseph county, and in 1833 he was commissioned Circuit Judge,
officiating in that capacity until 1836. The first application of the Terri-
tory of Michigan for admission as a State was denied by Congress, on the
grounds of objectional boundaries fixed, or rather adopted, bj the Terri-
torial convention. A second convention, therefore, was called in
November, 1833, to remodel the constitution. Colonel Stewart was a
member of that convention, and was selected by it to visit Washington,
with instructions to remain there until the admission of the Territory as a
State was secured. Upon his return from this mission in the Spring of
1837 he found that the legislature had elected him Commissioner of Inter-
nal Improvements, in which capacity he had charge of the survey of the
Saint Joseph river for slack water navigation, and of the laying out and
partial superintendence of the construction of the Michigan Central
railroad.
Colonel Stewart was in command of a Michigan regiment in the
Black Hawk war, his brother Alanson being a captain, his brother Samuel
a lieutenant, and his father, then sixty years old, drill-master under him.
In 1838 he was commissioned Brigadier-General, commanding Fourteenth
Brigade, Michigan militia. In 1836 he contracted for a large amount of
work on the Illinois and Michigan canal, and associated with him his
brother A. C. Stewart, Lorenzo P. Sanger and John S. Wallace.
After removing to Chicago,, which he did in 1840, his life was none
the less active than before. With others he contracted, in 1852, to con-
struct a railroad from East St. Louis to Vincennes, Indiana; in 1853-4
his firm contracted to build a railroad from St. Louis northwesterly to
the Iowa State line; and in 1855 the firm entered into a contract with
the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad Company for building their line from St.
Louis via Vandalia, Illinois, to the Wabash river; and during his resi-
dence in this city, he has been engaged in various kinds of business,
experiencing a variety of fortune, being sometimes up and at other times
down, now poor and again rich, but always aiming to build up the city of
his adoption.
General Stewart has been a member of the State legislature, having
been sent from Chicago in 1842. From 1845 to 1849 he was postmaster
under President Polk, and in all of his relations of life, private or official,
he has been faithful in the discharge of duty; and at his ripe age, the
sweetest words in language to ,the human ear must be this tribute to
character. Since 1824 the General has been a member of the Masonic
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
73
fraternity, and has taken all the Chapter and Encampment degrees, with
many of the Ineffable and Perfection degrees, and during all his business
life has been more or less identified with the leading spirits of the order in
the West.
It is to be sincerely regretted that an opportunity is not given for a
fuller sketch of a life which has been so fertile of benefit to the world,
and to draw the many valuable lessons which it teaches. But perhaps
enough has been said to impress the young who may chance to read these
lines, with the necessity of industry and uprightness, if in the decline of
life they would enjoy the plaudits of their fellow men. The life of Gen-
eral Hart L. Stewart has been signally illustrative of what a beautiful
harvest the culture of these virtues will insure.
74
HENRY J. GOODRICH.
«
Among the most difficult spheres in which success can be achieved,
especially in a new and rapidly developing community — where the spirit
of speculation is apt at times to inflate values beyond all reasonable hope
of permanency — is the business of handling real estate. The history of
transactions in the reality of Chicago is thickly strewn with financial wrecks
and blighted hopes. Indeed the men who have weathered all the storms
that have burst upon the business, and retained the confidence of the
public, are conspicuously few; and that few are richly entitled to be con-
sidered safe counselors and managers in business affairs under the most
perplexing circumstances. There is no calling that demands so much
of that cool, calm judgment and penetrating insight into every condition,
immediate and I'emote, and so much of that accurate measurement of pos-
sibilities and probabilities, which distinguish successful commanders of
great armies, as a profitable traffic in the real estate of a young and
rapidly growing city like Chicago. Locations which to the inexperienced
eye are comparatively valueless, are rated high by the keen judgment
of him who has studied the inevitable growth of the city; the probable
direction of trade in general, or of certain branches of it; the public
improvements which time must develop, and a multitude of circumstances
which will affect the value, and which are discerned in the future. On
the other hand the safe and reliable dealer in real estate must have the
strength of character to withstand the flattering promises of speculative
eras, and to keep his judgment unclouded and his honesty untarnished in
times that are tempestuous as well as when the most perfect calm rests
upon the commercial world. In all of these attributes of mind and char-
acter Henry J. Goodrich, the subject of this -sketch, is pre-eminently
endowed. One of the most prominent, extensive and successful dealers
in real estate who has ever operated in this city, his name is intimately
associated with the purchase and sale of much of our most valuable
property, and is synonymous with fair and honorable dealing through
many years of active business. Indeed, sturdiness of character, the strict
observance of principle in action and a fidelity in the discharge of duty are
the natural inheritance of our subject from an ancestry possessing these traits
in an eminent degree. When Worcester county, Massachusetts, now one
of the richest and most influential in that old commonwealth, was new
in settlement and name, a family of spirit, intellectual and physical
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 75
energy, and with willingness to respond to the call of duty, wherever it
might lead, was among the first settlers. Its name figures in the history
of French, Indian and Revolutionary wars — always laureled with patriot-
ism and the gratitude of advancing civilization — and is also prominent in
the record of local development. This was the Goodrich family which
furnished the immediate ancestry of Henry J. Goodrich. It was also
a branch of the family which became famous from the renown of the
familiar name, "Peter Parley."
Henry Jefferson Goodrich, son of Phineas and Nancy Goodrich, was
born January 23d, 1840, and received a common school education in the
district schools of New England. In 1855 he entered the University at
Fairfax, Vermont, now the Hampton Literary and Theological Institute.
After three years of study at this institution, he was compelled by reason
•of sickness to leave Fairfax, and so doing, resided in St. Albans, Vermont,
for one year. After reading law for a time with Judge White, he removed
in 1859 to Foxboro, Massachusetts, where he had access to the library
of his brother-in-law, the Reverend N. S. Dickinson, a Congregational
clergyman, who took a deep interest in his welfare. These facilities
young Goodrich improved to the utmost, and to them he is very largely
indebted for the fund of general information which he possesses.
At the close of the war for the preservation of the Union, in which
he served with distinction, Mr. Goodrich became chief clerk in the
Palmer House, Indianapolis, Indiana,1 in which he also held an interest.
Leaving Indianapolis, he afterward became clerk of the old Spencer
House on Broadway, in Cincinnati, Ohio. In August, 1865, however, he
came to Chicago, and immediately formed a co-partnership with Honorable
J. Esias Warren, under the name of Warren & Goodrich, doing business
under that style until 1870, when the firm dissolved by mutual consent,
and since that time, with the exception of special partnerships, Mr. Good-
rich has done business alone. His extensive business includes the agency
of some of the largest foreign estates in the city -and of Eastern and
Southern capitalists owning property here. In addition to this, and to
his steady purchase and sale of real estate, he has somehow found time
to act as assignee in important cases of bankruptcy, to raise the capital
for several coal and iron companies, and to do considerable valuable writ-
ing upon the subject of Chicago real estate, his "Doings in Real Estate,"
published in the old PRICE CURRENT, in 1865, being particularly notable.
But his business has been almost wholly that of a dealer in real estate,
of which he has been a close and practical student. Instead of following
the business merely as a source of gain, it seems always to have been his
pride to reduce it to a science, that his judgment might always rest upon
well established "business principles and not upon uncertainty. The esteem
in which his judgment concerning the values, present and prospective,
of real estate is universally held, is evidence that he has accomplished this
commendable object. It is very certain that the opinion of no man in
•Chicago in real estate matters has greater weight than his.
j6 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
While his business absorbs much of his time and demands the best
energies of his mind, he is yet active in those walks of life in which those
mellowing influences, so necessary for the good of individual character
and the elevation of mankind, are found and are active. Membership
in Blaney Lodge No. 271 Ancient Free and Accepted Masons — one of
the finest and most wealthy lodges in the United States; of Fairview
Chapter No. 161 Royal Arch Masons — of which he is one of the char-
ter members — and of Apollo Commandery, No. i Knight Templar, is
of a character to show his susceptibility to the claims of the beautiful
and more gentle influences of life. He is also treasurer of the Masonic
Holy Land League, which was instituted in 1867, and has for its object
the promotion of expeditions to the Orient to collect facts and traditions
that will shed light upon Free Masonry and the Holy Scriptures. This
organization has a membership of over fifteen thousand persons residing in
Europe and the United States, and the position which Mr. Goodrich holds
in it, shows how greatly he is esteemed by the brethren. Mr. Goodrich
has always been, too, a liberal donor to charities, but giving in that quiet,
unostentatious way that indicates genuine generosity of heart.
October i7th, 1867, at LaGrange, Kentucky, Mr. Goodrich was
married to Charlotte F. Morris, the eldest daughter of Robert Morris,
L. L. D., Past Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Masons of Kentucky,
and the well known Masonic author. Mrs. Goodrich is a native of Mis-
sissippi, but removed with her parents to Kentucky while a child, and
was educated at Louisville. She is highly accomplished and a very
superior ladv. Mr. and Mrs. Goodrich have one child, Charlotte Maud.
It is to such men as he whose life is thus briefly sketched, that Chi-
cago is so greatly indebted for its prosperity and position among the great
municipalities of the world; men of complete self-possession under all
circumstances, which can only come from accurate knowledge of at least
the special branch of business in which they may be engaged; men of
unsullied honor and unbending honesty, and withal men of generous
impulses of heart. These are the prominent traits of representative Chi-
cago character, and to none do they belong in more conspicuous prominence
than to Henry J. Goodrich.
77
IRA BROWN.
Success in life always receives a merited homage. The general from
his victories; the statesman wearing the laurels of triumphant diplomacy;
the orator whose burning words have charmed, and whose logic has con-
vinced; the artist whose brush has touched the canvas with life and beauty;
the merchant who has risen to princely affluence; whoever, indeed, has
stepped above the level, is sure of the world's regard, and to a degree that
it becomes scarcely distinguishable from worship. Nor is such feeling
prompted by the brilliancy of the achievement. Men do not worship
the results of life; it is the life itself that becomes the idol. It is not
the granite shaft on Bunker Hill that awes us into reverence, but it is the
shadow of the intellect and patriotism which made that monument possible
that prompts us to tread lightly and to speak softly at its base. Whenever
mighty results are apparent, mighty intellect is discernible in the back-
ground ; and it is upon it that the eye centers. Success is methodical. There
is no such thing as chance victories in life; and knowing this, however
prone the mind may be to indulge in fancies to the contrary, it desires to
know something of the man who has baffled the siege of difficulties which
surrounds almost every one, caring little for the achievements themselves.
The obelisk is beautiful, but who built it? soliloquizes the beholder. The
statue is life-like and eloquent, but whose hand held the chisel and whose
mind directed its movements? The city or village may be a Rome in
architectural splendor, and a bower in natural beauty, but the mind turns
from the magnificence to learn something of the founder and designer.
Ira Brown must be placed in the list of Chicago's most successful men,
and in view of that fact, the usual interest attaches to his life that there
does to the lives of others who have been successful, and for the reasons
already stated. When we consider that Mr. Brown successfully rode out
the financial storm of 1873, and although suffering severe losses in the
shrinkage of real estate values, yet saved a handsome fortune from what
might be termed the general wreck, and that, too, when others similarly
situated were utterly unable to extricate themselves, and were compelled
to seek refuge in the bankruptcy courts, his pre-eminent abilities as a
business man stand out in the business community in decided bold relief.
But his entire life, since his arrival in Chicago, has pointed in this direction.
His enterprise has been restless and really brilliant; his judgment has been
unerring, and his foresight has been distinguished for capability of pene-
78 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
trating the future with remarkable certainty. In 1853, when a boy of only
nineteen years of age, he came to Chicago, and began life for himself,
becoming first a clerk in one of the hotels, and then proprietor of the
house. Disposing of this business, he entered upon a mercantile life, which
some years later he abandoned for the purpose of giving his entire atten-
tion to his large real estate interests, of which he had gradually become
possessed. His belief in the ultimate greatness of the city induced him,
while engaged in the mercantile business, to invest his spare capital in
suburban property, and subsequent history has proven the wisdom of such
a course. Nothing, indeed, could more clearly show the characteristic
ability and keen perception of the man, than this deliberate escape from
land speculation in the city, to the quiet and beautiful suburbs, now known
as LaGrange, Desplaines, Thornton, Evanston, Lake Side, Glencoe, Park
Ridge and Hyde Park, in each of which he is the owner of a great deal
of land which has been divided into house lots, and is sold, if the purchaser
desires, on the monthly installment plan, a system first introduced by Mr.
Brown himself. At this writing the value of all this property is easily
discernible by even the most inexperienced, and it is not difficult to esti-
mate its constant and rapid increase of value while Chicago remains the
great and growing metropolis it now is. But years ago, when much of
it was first purchased by Mr. Brown, its value was almost nothing, as com-
pared to its present worth, and only two classes of men would have
purchased it at the price paid per acre : the extremely reckless, or the extra-
ordinarily sagacious. Mr. Brown was of the latter. Reasoning that there
would yet be a demand for suburban homes by two classes of people — the
rich who would retreat before the growth and inconveniences of a com-
mercial city, and those whose means would not permit them to secure
homes upon the high priced lands of a metropolis, he fearlessly invested his
money, and having sown the seed, sat down to patiently wait for the
harvest. Under the most ordinary circumstances the harvest would have
been by this time a bountiful one, and a monument to the sagacity of the
mind that conceived it possible. But fortunately for Mr. Brown, the great
fire of 1871 was an extraordinary circumstance, which, together with the
fire ordinance which resulted, advanced the value of his acre property
about one thousand per cent. Had .he been other than a fair and honorable
man, disdaining to take an unjust advantage of his fellow citizens' adver-
sity, he might have asked and received a much greater advance. But at
that time, and since, while enjoying a legitimate profit upon his investment,
towns and individuals have been immensely benefited through his well
established rule of business — to live and let live.
Mr. Brown handles nothing but his own property, and his extensive
business monopolizes the whole time that he has to give to business. Un-
like the majority of men, however, with such large personal enterprises in
progress, he never neglects to attend to duties of a public nature, when their
discharge clearly devolves upon him. His willingness in this direction
was illustrated by his devotion to the erection of the Ada Street Methodist
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 79
Church. As President of the Board of Trustees and Chairman of the
Building Committee, his labors in behalf of the church were indefatigable,
nor did they cease until the site of the church was located, and he had
furnished the means for the erection of the present edifice. This church is
very largely indebted to Mr. Brown for its present prosperity. Indeed
the Methodist denomination in this section owes very much to his public
spirit and practical Christianity, for he was a prime mover in locating the
grounds and in inaugurating the celebrated camp meetings at Desplaines.
Although thus prominently identified with the development of Chi-
cago, and ranked among its most substantial citizens, Mr. Brown is yet a
young man. He was born at Perrysburgh, Ohio, January 25th, 1835, and
was educated at Defiance in that State, near which his father, who also
bears the name of Ira, now resides upon and manages a fine stock farm.
The mother of our subject was Harriet Loughborough, who was born and
married in Rochester, New York, and comes from a family which is well
and favorably known in that State. William S. Loughborough, a brother,
is a prominent lawyer in Rochester, and Barton Loughborough, anothfe,
brother, has occupied the responsible position of Warden of the State
Prison at Auburn, for many years.
Both branches of the family are distinguished for longevity. The
paternal grandmother of our subject lived to the age of one hundred and
ten years, and his maternal grandmother died when ninety-three years old.
His father has already reached the ripe age of seventy-three years.
Mr. Brown was married on the twelfth of January, 1862, at Chicago,
to Delphi K. Brown, who was a Lousianian, and the daughter of a promi-
nent secessionist. Miss Brown's family was temporarily stopping here, at
that time, and the union which was thus effected between the North and the
South has never been a cause of regret to the contracting parties or their
friends. Mrs. Brown is an accomplished and typical Southern lady, who
has always been a sympathetic wife of a busy and successful husband,,
whose enterprise has made his name as familiar in Chicago as that of any
of her honored citizens.
CHAPTER VII.
RAILROADS.
Our railroads are arteries through which flow the life current of
Chicago. To the vast network of iron track centering here, and ex-
tending all over the country, Chicago owes, in a great measure, her pre-
eminent greatness and prosperity. It is not uncommon to hear the opinion
•expressed that she is wholly indebted for being what she is, to her majestic
system of railways ; and while it is true that without such assistance, Chicago
could never have achieved so much and so brilliantly, it is not true that
«he owes her progress and prospects to any one element or impulse.
Her schools, churches, newspapers, fertile surrounding fields, persistent
enterprise and integrity have all entered into the composition of the
root which has fed the luxuriant tree. Take away either, and Chicago,
"brilliant as she is, powerful as she is, prosperous as she is, gradually fades
away into insignificance and ultimate oblivion. Her railroads are
.arteries, but not the only ones. They link her to the furthermost
parts of the continent, and make her the possible rival of the seaboard
metropolis of America, and when the traveler steps to the ticket office of
a Chicago railroad, and purchases a ticket to almost any part of the world,
he begins to realize that the "star of empire" has taken its way westward,
until upon this rude spot of fifty years ago, is centered the power of, the
American nation, and that the iron track and the locomotive have made
the achievement possible. The Illinois and Michigan canal was the day-
break of Chicago — her railroads are her noon.
The old Galena and Chicago Union road was the pioneer line. This
road was chartered by the legislature in -1836, and but for the financial
•crash that followed, the work of its construction would have been at once
commenced. The panic, however, necessitated delay, and the first rail on
the line now known as the Freeport line, was not laid until 1847, m<*re
than ten years after the charter had been granted. The work of construc-
tion even then proceeded with tedious slowness, and it was not until 1853
that the entire road from Chicago to Freeport — one hundred and twenty-
one miles — was completed. From Freeport it reached Galena the follow-
ing year, over a newly built section of the Illinois Central road, and the
rich lead mines of Galena, now brought to the door of the young city,
gave encouragement to the people and offered additional inducements to
immigration. Still, there was a slow appreciation of the advantages which
Eastern railroad connection would confer. While it would seem that the
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. Si
results of the canal and the railroad would prompt the people to attempt
to dig canals and build railroads in all directions, it was not so. Perhaps
poverty had a vast deal to do with such lukewarmness, but in our day,
when poverty leaps over the most formidable obstacles, and clothes itself
in the splendors of wealth, we can scarcely comprehend that so poor an
excuse could be given for a lack of enthusiasm in connecting Chicago with
the East. In truth this, was not the cause, which was found in that im-
perfect foresight which led to the belief that the lake would furnish all the
means of transportation Eastward that Chicago would ever require. The
neglect to seek railroad connection with other important points of the
country, is the isolated instance of Chicago failing to be enterprising and
to comprehend the future. While she should have seen that to be great
she must become a railroad center, she was asleep in this respect, and no
one can tell how long she would have slept, if she had not been awakened
by Eastern capitalists, who saw her need, and the profit of supplying it.
It is, however, to the credit of Chicago as a corporate body, that she steered
clear of the evil which so many municipalities have suffered under —
pecuniary entanglement with railroad enterprises.
The Illinois Central was the next important railroad project. This
was intended to run from Chicago to Cairo, a distance of three hundred
and sixty-five miles, and from Centralia to the northern limit of the State,
making a total distance of seven hundred and four miles. Congress was
applied to to aid in its construction, and through the efforts of Stephen A.
Douglas, passed an act in 1850 granting to the State of Illinois for the
purpose, two million, five hundred and ninety-five thousand acres of land.
The legislature thereupon chartered the Illinois Central Railroad Company
by act passed the tenth of February, 1851, and transferred to it the lands
granted by Congress, upon conditions that the road should be constructed
within a certain limit of time, and that the State should be paid seven per
cent, of the gross earnings of the road forever. In the year following the
granting of the charter, the company secured the right of way into the city
along the lake shore, and immediately proceeded with the construction of
the breakwater to which reference has been made in a former chapter. The
space between the shore and the breakwater was afterward filled in, and
the magnificent depot of the company — which was destroyed by fire in
1871 — was afterward erected upon a portion of this made land. The road
proper, with its leased lines, is now fourteen hundred miles long, and is
among the very best railroad property in the country.
The first railroad connection with the East was furnished by the
Northern Indiana railroad, now a part of the Lake Shore and Michigan
Southern. In February, 1835, a company was incorporated in the State
of Indiana under the name of the Buffalo and Mississippi Railroad Com-
pany. In 1837 the name was changed to that first mentioned. Its con-
tinuance from the State of Indiana into Illinois and Chicago was hastened
by a desire on the part of the people living around the bend of the lake in
Northern Indiana, to have a rival road to the Michigan Central, which in
$2 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
1852 was being rapidly pushed toward Chicago. The people referred
to opposed the extension of the Michigan Central to Chicago, for
the reason that they wished Chicago's Eastern railroad connection to
pass through their section and connect with Toledo, and they did not
believe that there would be business enough to support two lines. But the
Michigan Central was pushed with enterprise from its first conception. In
1842, the year it was projected, the road was built from Detroit to Ypsilanti,
in Michigan, and was afterward extended to St. Joseph. When it was
decided, therefore, that the road should extend to Chicago — which decision
was made as soon as it became evident to those interested, that a Chicago
connection would pay — the road simply followed the dictates of its character
for enterprise by inaugurating the work at once and completing it as soon
as possible. The Indiana people, who had bitterly opposed the extension,
seeing that they could not prevent it, determined to have their road reach
the city first, and they succeeded. What is now the Lake Shore and
Michigan Southern, reached Chicago as an extension of the Northern In-
diana railroad on the twentieth of February, 1852, while the last rail of
the Michigan Central was not laid until the twenty-first of May following.
The Lake Shore and Michigan Southern, now one of what are known
as the Vanderbilt railroads, has only fourteen miles of distance in Illinois,
but is so closely connected with the history of Chicago and the State, that
it is usually considered an Illinois road. Its history is as follows: In Feb-
ruary, 1855, an agreement of consolidation was made and entered into
between the Northern Indiana and Chicago Railrftad Company of Illinois,
the Northern Indiana Company of Ohio and Indiana, and the Board of
Commissioners of the Western Division of the Buffalo and Mississippi Rail-
road Company of Indiana, the consolidated organization assuming the
title of the Northern Indiana Railroad Company. This consolidation
was further supplemented in April, 1855, by a union with the Michigan
Southern Railroad Company, and the new organization was officially
recognized as the Michigan Southern and Northern Indiana Railroad
Company, under which title the road was operated until 1869, when the
whole road from Erie to Chicago was consolidated, under the name of
Lake Shore and Michigan Southern railroad.
The main line of the Michigan Central railroad extends from Detroit
to Calumet, two hundred and seventy miles, and it runs from that point to
Chicago over the Illinois Central railroad, fourteen miles; but the company
also leases the Joliet and Indiana railroad, forty-five miles; the Grand
River Valley railroad, Jackson to Grand Rapids, ninety-four miles; the
Jackson, Lansing and Saginaw railroad, Rives Junction to Otsego Lake,
two hundred and fifteen miles; Michigan Air-Line railroad, Jackson to
Niles, one hundred and three miles; South Bend Division, Niles to South
Bend, ten miles; Kalamazoo and South Haven railroad, Kalamazoo to
South Haven, thirty-nine miles; total length of road operated under one
management, seven hundred and ninety miles, of which six hundred and
seventy-four are situated in the State of Michigan, and are exclusive of
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. S-2
double track, sidings, etc. During the four years ending December 31,
1869, tne Michigan Central Railroad Company in its corporate capacity
assisted the construction of the Jackson, Lansing and Saginaw, Grand
River Valley, Kalamazoo and South Haven, and Michigan Air-Line
railroads, and these lines are now operated by it.
What is now known as the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific railroad
had its start in Illinois in a charter granted in 1847 to a company under the
name of the Rock Island and LaSalle Railroad Company. By an act of
the legislature the title of the company was changed in 1851 to the Chicago
and Rock Island Company, and when in 1866 this company consolidated
with the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad Company of Iowa, a
new company was formed, and the name of the Iowa company adopted.
The Chicago and Rock Island was completed between the two cities in
1854, having been commenced in 1852.
From the American Railroad Manual we learn that the line of road
from Joliet to Alton — now a part of the Chicago and Alton railroad
"was built under the charters of the Alton and Sangamon, and Chicago
and Mississippi Railroad Companies. The charter of the first-named
company covered the road from Alton to Springfield, and it is believed
that this portion of the line was commenced in 1849, and completed in
1852, with the proceeds of bona fide local subscriptions to stock, under the
management of a local board of directors. After the completion of the
road to Springfield, a new charter was obtained for extending the line to
Bloomington, and contracts for the construction were let to a Mr. Godfrey,
of Alton, who, subsequently becoming embarrassed, or for other reasons
not definitely known, retired from his connection with the road, assigning
his contract to Henry Dwight, of New York. This gentleman con-
ceived the idea of extending the road to Joliet, and making a connection at
that point for Chicago and the East." This was done in 1854, Chicago
being reached from Joliet over the track of the Chicago and Rock Island
road. In 1857 the Chicago and Alton built an independent track.
The line of railroad owned and operated by the Chicago, Burlington
and Quincy Company, and embracing, with its various branches, leased
lines, sidings, etc., more than one thousand miles of track, was constructed
under various charters, dating from February I2th, 1849, in which year the
Aurora Branch Railroad Company was incorporated. The Chicago and
Aurora Railroad Company obtained its charter in June, 1852, and after
building the road from Chicago to Aurora, formed a consolidation, in July,
18^6, with what was then known as the Central Military Tract Railroad
Company, which owned the road from Mendota to Galesburg, the new
consolidated organization assuming the title now held by the company, viz.»
Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad Company.
The history of the Northwestern railroad is a story of consolidation
but as connected with a history of Chicago, it is not necessary to say more
concerning it than has already been said of the Galena and Chicago Union
— which was absorbed by the Chicago and Northwestern in June, 1864 —
84 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
except to mention the fact that the line from Chicago to Milwaukee was
built in 1854. The road is an extensive system of railroads within itself,
and the remark is sometimes made that it runs all over the Northwest.
The Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railroad Company was
incorporated in 1852 and completed in 1856. The company, so far as
Illinois is concerned, was incorporated in the year mentioned, under the
name of the Fort Wayne and Chicago Railroad Company, with authority
to build a road from the western terminus of the Ohio and Indiana rail-
road to Chicago. In 1856 these two companies, and the Ohio and Pennsyl-
vania Railroad Company consolidated under the title which the road now
bears.
The Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul railroad was opened for
business from Chicago to Milwaukee in the Spring of 1873. Previous to
that the Milwaukee and St. Paul road had been dependent upon the
Chicago and Northwestern for facilities to reach Chicago from Milwaukee.
The Baltimore and Ohio railroad was extended to Chicago in 1874.
The Grand Trunk railroad, formerly compelled to use the tracks of the
Michigan Central from Detroit to Chicago, now owns an independent line
from Port Huron to this point. The Chicago, Danville and Vincennes
Railroad Company was chartered in the Winter of 1865-6, with authority
to construct a railroad from Chicago to Danville, Illinois, and there to con-
nect with other roads running to Terre Haute and Vincennes, Indiana, but
the entire road was not completed until 1872. The Chicago and Western
Indiana railroad entered Chicago in 1880.
There are numerous other roads with headquarters in the city, but
which are not strictly Chicago roads, and it has not been deemed necessary
to mention them, although it is not forgotten that in their union with
Chicago roads, over whose tracks they are enabled to extend themselves to
this great center, they play a prominent part in making the vast railroad
system which is the pride of our people.
....••••-.,..
DANIEL H. HALE.
The life which we shall here sketch has been the embodiment and
grand example of that restless but judicious enterprise which has made
the development of cities and countries like our own, matters of brilliant
record; enterprise which lays alike native and foreign resources under
tribute to our material advancement, and imbues not only a community
but the world with vigorous impulses. Chicago, the youngest of our
great cities, is yet the most famous, and for the reason that the aggregate
of her intellectual forces, comprehensive enterprises and attributes of
character have astonished the world. Three times built — once upon an
uninviting prairie, and twice upon the smouldering ruins of herself —
adorned with colossal buildings of the most beautiful architecture, the
center of the greatest railway system in the world, her streets throbbing
with commercial activity, and in intimate business relations with the
entire world, the intelligent mind pauses in the presence of such a sub-
lime monument to human energy and character, first in astonishment
and then in unbounded admiration. How has such an achievement been
possible, inquires the world; and it finds a solution of the apparently
mysterious problem in an analysis of the character of the men who
compose our citizenship. Our most prominent citizens, the men who have
made Chicago beautiful, powerful and famous, as a rule, have been the
architects of their own fortunes, starting in life with character, integrity,
intellect and perseverance as their only capital. With these they have
conquered difficulties, amassed fortune, achieved fame, and made our
city a vast commercial metropolis.
Daniel H. Hale belongs to this sterling class of representative Chi-
cagoans, and has made a deep impress upon the character of this rapidly
maturing community. Of New England origin — having been born in
Richmond, in the State of Maine, May i6th, 1825 — he inherited the
staunchness of character into which the principles underlying New
England life have firmly crystalized, and has not onlv kept the priceless
inheritance unsullied, but in an unusually active life, has interwoven it
conspicuously in all his business transactions, giving them substantial
merit that has always guaranteed them public confidence.
The parents of our subject — Holbrook Hale and Jane A. Rawlins —
were in all respects most worthy people, and were highly esteemed by
the community of which they were a part. The father was a lumber-
86 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
man, living near the city of Bangor, until the son reached the age of
twelve years, when the family left Maine, removing to a locality near
Chicago, where the father died at the early age of thirty-seven years,
leaving a wife and seven children, of whom Daniel was the oldest. After
remaining at home for a few years, it was found necessary that he should
"work out" in order to assist in the support of the family; and nobly did
he apply himself to the discharge of this duty for about four years, when
he was offered and accepted a position in Mr. Folsom's warehouse in
Michigan City. After holding this new position for a few months, he
engaged with Sleight & Windover, to take charge of their warehouse,
where he remained for one year, saving in the meantime sufficient means
to give him a start for himself, the great ambition of his young life. The
commencement of his active business life was now about to be made.
Procuring a team and a limited stock of goods, he began the life of
a traveling merchant. This, however, was an entirely too limited sphere
for a young man of his energy of character and natural ability, and
selling this business, we next find him the proprietor of a store in Walnut
Grove, Indiana, and still later in the same capacity at Merrillville in the
same State, of which he was the postmaster for eight years. In 1857 ^ie
left Merrillville, and came to Chicago, where he soon purchased a large
stock of goods and opened business at number 214 Randolph street.
At the expiration of one year he sold out this establishment, and devoted
some time to travel and buying and selling real estate and merchandise, his
good judgment enabling him to make all his enterprises remunerative.
In 1862 Mr. Hale entered the Union army as Quartermaster of the
one hundred and twenty -seventh Illinois Regiment, Colonel Van Arnarn
commanding; but resigned immediately after the battle of Vicksburg,
and engaged in the milling business at Niles, Michigan, which he prose-
cuted for five years. Then disposing of his business interests at Niles,
he entered upon the business of mining in Hardin county, Illinois,
remaining there for five years, forming during the time three large lead
mining companies — of one of which. he was vice president — and super-
intended the working of their mines. Selling his interests here, we
again find him in Chicago, engaged with Henry I. Sheldon, under the
style of Daniel H. Hale & Company, in the business of loaning money
upon first mortgage on Chicago real estate. After using their own
money for a time in the business, they conceived the idea of visiting
Scotland and organizing a mortgage company which should be composed
of Scotch capitalists, with the view of operating in the United States.
Accordingly in the Spring of 1874 Mr. Hale, with his family, and accom-
panied by Mr. Sheldon, sailed in the steamer Adriatic for Liverpool,
leaving New York on the sixteenth of May. Arriving at Liverpool, they
went thence to London, and from there to Edinburgh, where they met
J. Duncan Smith and several other gentlemen who manifested an inter-
est in their enterprise. Within two months the Scottish-American Mort-
gage Company — limited — of Edinburgh, was organized, with a capital
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 87
of one million pounds sterling, to loan money on first real estate mort-
gages. Mr. Hale was chosen the General Agent of the great company
in America — a recognition of his abilities as a financier and of his char-
acter as a man, which is seldom accorded by the capitalists of one nation
to an individual of another. The wisdom of the choice has been abun-
dantly demonstrated, for the business of the company in this country has
been managed with the most signal success by Mr. Hale and Mr. Shel-
don, who have been associated in the American management from the
time of the organization of the company until the present. Some of
the most extensive and conspicuous improvements in this citv, during the
last five years, have been done upon Scotch capital, and whether or not
it has been furnished through the colossal company which Mr. Hale
represents, Chicago is certainly indebted to him for attracting the atten-
tion of the capitalists of Scotland to the Empire City of the West.
With such responsibilities as the representation of such immense
capital riaturally imposes, it would be supposed that a man would be
unwilling to assume other important duties. But the restless enterprise
and indomitable energy of Mr. Hale are apparently commensurate with
the demands of public interests, and are happily not beyond the strength
of his splendid physical organization. Perceiving a benefit both to
emigrants and the United States, he with other responsible gentlemen,
formed, two years ago, the Anglo-American Land Company, the object
of which is to encourage Scotch emigration in colonies to America, by
offering them lands under the control of responsible and philanthropic
American gentlemen. The capital stock of this company is ten million
dollars, divided in shares of one hundred dollars; and the standard of
character belonging to him of whom we write, is once more acknowl-
edged by his selection as the president of this company, which controls
such vast interests, and is of so much importance to two continents. The
Scots are such excellent citizens — some of them, through merit of char-
acter and intellect at this moment occupying conspicuous positions in the
Senate of the American Republic — that any attempt of such a broad,
responsible and philanthropic character, as that which distinguishes Mr.
Hale's Anglo-American Land Company, is entitled to the warmest praise
and heartiest support of every American fcitizen.
Still the record of the sleepless genius which has accomplished so
much for the development of our Western country, is not complete.
Mr. Hale has conceived a practical plan of intimately connecting Chicago
with Texas and Mexico, thus realizing the hope expressed by our citizens
and the Mexican Minister at a meeting held in Hershey Hall about two
years since. He has organized a company called the Chicago, Texas and
Mexican Central railroad, to build a railroad from Chicago southwest —
connecting with other roads already, or to be, constructed — through Texas
and Mexico to the Pacific coast, at the harbor of Topolovanpo Bay. The
road is now under construction, and besides the recommendation which
the name of Mr. Hale gives it, it has among its officers and stockholders
88 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
many of the, very best men in Chicago. In the accomplishment of this
desirable object — the direct communication of Chicago with Mexico — the
projector of the feasible scheme has added luster to his fame, and entitled
h mself to the gratitude of the city in which he has achieved the most.
Mr. Hale was married May ist, 1849, to Carrie B. Merrill, at Mer-
rillville, Indiana, Miss Merrill being about nineteen years of age, having
been born October nth, 1830. This union has been of a very happy
character. For thirty-two years husband and wife have traveled up the
h'.ll together, and now side by side enjoy the ease of a luxurious home, and
ihe thought that constant integrity has given the head of the family an
assurance of respect and confidence, even when millions of dollars are
involved. The first child — Melvina — born March ipth, 1850, died when
five months old. In 1873 Daniel Hale, Jr., died. Clinton B. Hale was
born May 23d, 1853, and for four years has been a member of the firm
of D. H. Hale & Company, and is one of the most promising young men
of Chicago.
Personally Mr. Hale is one of the most genial of men. In the midst
of his vast responsibilities he is approachable on all occasions; seemingly
with more demands upon his time than time will allow, he yet finds time,
and is apt enough to welcome the millionaire or the poor man, and to
satisfy the legitimate requests of either. The broad, liberal views of Mu.
Hale cannot fail to make his presence, his office or his home pleasant to-
all who may have occasion to present themselves in either. He is a firm
believer in the universal brotherhood of man, and of Gocl as the common
Father; he believes in the grand doctrine of doing by others as you would
be done by, and that the Father of us all, will gather every one of us
into His arms, pitying our waywardness, but condoning it; "that He will
take in all humanity and care for it."
With millions of dollars at his disposal; with a railroad under way,
linking Chicago to Mexico; with land to invite settlers from Bonnie
Scotland to an America that admires the Scottish character, and with his
grand comprehensive view of man's brotherhood and destiny, Chicago
will delight to engrave upon the monuments that she will rear to com-
memorate the enterprise and nobility of those who have been most
conspicuous among her sterling citizenship, the name of Daniel H, Hale.
CHAPTER VIII.
CHURCHES.
There are comparatively few who are unwilling to acknowledge the
beneficial effects of churches upon a community — that they are a moral
police force, vastly aiding in the maintenance of the peace of the com-
munity and in insuring the security of life and property. Even men who
are infidel in religious belief are usually free to accord to the church — of
whatever denomination it may be — the power to influence men for good.
A careful observation of the influence of the church in a community will,
it is believed, establish this fact to the satisfaction of any unprejudiced mind,
and will show how greatly the community is indebted to it for the preser-
vation of good order and the salvation of lives which are of incalculable
value to society. There are men and women within the pale of our church
organizations who are no honor to them, and the church would be better off
without them; but in the majority of cases such persons and society are the
gainers through even such unworthy church membership. These men
and women are bad in the church, but they would be worse if out of it.
Whatever they may do in secret, they put on an outward show of respecta-
bility and morality, being restrained from a public exhibition of their evil
natures by a fear of losing reputation; and vice in the corner, if it must
be, is preferable to vice on the housetop. If men will be evilly inclined,
it is always better, for the good of an imitative world, that the evil should
be hid from public gaze, for
"Vice, seen too often, familiar with its face,
We first endure, then pity, then embrace."
But positively useful to society as such a restraining influence is, the
church accomplishes a far more prominent work; and in a city like Chicago
jts achievements entitle it to the respect and support of every tax payer and
laborer for the advancement of material prosperity. It has been the
efficient instrumentality of rescuing hundreds and thousands from all de-
grees of degradation and uselessness, and converting them into respectable
and producing citizens; instead of being a burden upon, they have been made
a help to, society, and whatever can accomplish such a work is certainly not
a mere ornament, much less useless, but is a corner stone of real prosperity
and a promoter of civilization. In view of what the church has done in
this direction, it ill becomes any one who has such an interest in the future
of Chicago, as would lead him to wish for universal sobriety, universal
hon.es.ty and universal industry — which would be the perfection of pros-
90 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
parity — to do or say aught that would retard its progress, limit its influence
or impugn its motives.
But grand and beneficial as have been the labors of the church in the
capacity of a restraining guardian and a reformer, its character as 3 minister-
ing angel to the unfortunate of mankind shines forth upon a selfish world
like a beautiful star glittering in a cloudy night. The church is a generous
and constant dispenser of charity, and it asks but one question concerning
the applicant: Is the case a deserving one? With an affirmative answer
comes aid alike to Jew or Gentile, Christian or Pagan. The cry of human
distress finds its way straight to the altar of the church, and the vast pro-
portion of our public charities are conceived and supported by our various
church organizations or by individuals connected with them. The history
of the church in Chicago, therefore, will certainly not be the least interest-
ing chapter in this book, to the majority of its readers who hope for the
future success of the city.
The Methodist denomination was the first to bring the "glad tidings
of great joy" to modern Chicago, which it did in 1831 through the mission-
ary preacher, Reverend Jesse Walker, who continued to labor in this field
for three years. The first quarterly meeting held here assembled in the
Fall of 1833, m a building on the corner of Clark and old North Water
streets. The Methodists first built a log church at "The Point," in which
meetings were held until the Spring of 1834, when a frame church was
erected on North Water street between Dearborn and Clark streets. Two
years later the lot still occupied by the First Methodist Church at the
corner of Clark and Washington streets was purchased, and in the Summer
of 1838 the building on North Water street was moved across the river to
the newly purchased lot. In 1846 a new church edifice was erected by
the society, which building being destroyed in the great fire of 1871, was
afterward replaced by the present building, which not only furnishes church
accommodations to the society, but a portion of it is used for business
purposes, making it a very valuable property.
The first church really organized in the city is the First Presbyterian,
the organization of which took place on the twenty-sixth of June, 1833,
and its membership consisted of John Wright, Philo Carpenter, J. H. Poor.
Rufus Brown, John S. Wright, Elizabeth Brown, Cynthia Brown, Mary
Taylor, Elizabeth Clark, and twenty-five members of the garrison.
In the years 1833-4 tne m'st Catholic Church was erected on State
street by the Reverend Mr. Schoffer. In 1843 St. Mary's Church, at the
corner of W abash avenue and Eldridge court, was opened for public
worship, although not completed until 1845, and that is now the oldest
organized Catholic Church in Chicago.
o <j
On the nineteenth of October, 1833, the organization of the first Baptist
Church took place, the first members being Reverend A. B. Freeman,
pastor, Peter Warden, John K. Sargents, Nathaniel Carpenter, S. T. Jack-
son, Ebon Crane, Martin D. Harmon, Willard Jones, Samantha Harmon,
Luanda Jackson, Susannah Rice, Hannah C. Freeman and Betsey Crane.
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 01
The first Episcopal Church was organized in 1834, with the following
members: John Johnson, P. Johnson, Mrs. J. H. Kinzie, Francis W.
Magill, Margaret Helm and Nancy Hallam.
The first Congregational society was formed on the twenty-second of
May, 1851, and at first worshiped on Washington street between Halsted
and Union. Afterward it built a church edifice on the corner of Wash-
ington and Green streets, which it occupied a few years, and then moved
to the corner of Washington and Ann streets, where its first building was
destroyed by fire, but on which site the flourishing church now worships
in one of the most commodious and elegant edifices in the city.
Thus was the organization of church work begun in Chicago, and
other denominations soon followed the pioneer sects into the new field, until
in addition to them, the Christian, Dutch Reformed, Evangelical Associa-
tion of North America, Evangelical United, Jewish, Lutheran, Reformed
Episcopal, Unitarian, Universalist and Swedenborgian churches have
established themselves here. The Methodists now have twenty churches
in the city : the Ada Street, Brighton, Centenary, Dickson Street, First, Ful-
ton Street, Grace, Grant Place, Halsted Street, Kossuth Street, Lang-
ley Avenue, Michigan Avenue, Park Avenue, Simpson, State Street, St.
Paul's, Trinity, Wabash Avenue, Western Avenue and Winter Street.
The Presbyterians have twenty-one churches: the First, Second, Third,
Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Eighth, Tenth, Westminster, First German, First
Scotch, First United, Forty-first Street, Fullerton Avenue, Jefferson Park,
Lawndale, Noble Street, Railroad Chapel, Reunion, Welsh and Camp-
bell Park. The Episcopalians have sixteen churches: Bishop White-
house Memorial, Cathedral, Calvary, Church of our Savior, Church of
the Ascension, Church of the Epiphany, Church of the Holy Communion,
Grace, St. Ansgarius, St. James', St. Andrews', St. Mark's, St. Paul's, St.
Thomas', St. Stephen's and Trinity. The Baptists have twenty-three
churches: the Fii'st, Second, Fourth, Centennial, Central, Coventry
Street, Dearborn Street, Evangel, First Danish, First German, Halsted
Street, Michigan Avenue, Millard Avenue, North Star, Olivet, Providence,
South, First Swedish, Second Swedish, Tabernacle, Twenty-fifth Street,
University Place and Western Avenue. The Congregationalists have
ten churches: the First, Bethany, Clinton Street, Leavitt Street, Lincoln
Park, New England, Plymouth, South, Union Park and the Welsh. The
Roman Catholics have thirty-five churches: the All Saints', Cathedral
of the Holy Name, Church of Notre Dame, Church of the Holy Name,
Church of our Lady of Sorrows, Church of the Annunciation, Church
of the Holy Family, Church of the Immaculate Conception, Church of
the Nativity, Church of the Sacred Heart, St. Adalbert's, St. Anne's, St.
Anthony's, St. Boniface's, St. Bridget's, St. Columbkill's, St. Thomas',
St. Francis Assissium, St. James', St. Jarlath's, St. John's, St. John Nepo-
mucene's, St. Joseph's, St. Mary's, St. Michael's, St. Patrick's, St. Paul's,
St. Peter's, St. Philip Benizzi, St. Pius', St. Procopius, St. Stanislaus
Kostka, St. Vincent De Paul's, St. Stephen's and St. Wenceslaus'. The
92 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
Jewish churches number ten, and are the Ahavi Emunah, B'Nei Avro-
hoon, Zion Congregation, Sinai Congregation, Ohev Sholom, Kehilath
B'Nai Sholom, Ahavi- Sholom, Kehilath Anshe Maarev, Congregation
of the North Side and Congregation Beth Aamidrash. The Reformed
Episcopalians have seven churches: Christ, Church of the Good Shepherd,
Emanuel, Grace, St. John's, St. Matthew's and St. Paul's, The Unitar-
ians have three churches: the Third, Unity and the Church of the Messiah.
The Swedenborgians have but few churches, but the denomination is ably
represented in the churches that do exist.
Besides the regular churches there are a number of independent church
organizations, some of which are very prominent and influential. Among
these may be mentioned Moody's Church, at the corner of LaSalle street
and Chicago avenue, and named after the great evangelist, D. L. Moody;
the Central Church, which meets in Central Music Hall, and is the church
to which Professor David Swing ministers; and the Reverend A. Youker's
Church in the West Division.
Some of the church edifices are the largest, most convenient and most
elegant in the country, and considering the unfortunate visitation of des-
truction in 1871 upon the churches of the South and North Divisions, the
church people of Chicago are deserving of the greatest credit for having
completed in less than a half a century so many beautiful houses of worship;
and as the societies build anew they improve upon what has preceded, as
if gradually but surely approaching an imitation of the splendors of the
"Pantheon in the Air." But while the churches of Chicago are models of
architectural beauty, and are magnificently furnished, the charge, so fre-
quently made, that the gospel, as dispensed by the average pulpit, is only
for the rich, is not true here, if it is anywhere. It is not only the right of
a people who can afford it, to build an imposing church edifice, but it is
their duty — their duty to Him who is King of kings and entitled to be
worshiped amidst the most exquisite surroundings that His own wealth
can provide, and their duty to the community in which they are located and
in whose architectural adornment they should be interested; provided
always that the community shall be furnished by the church with all the
free church accommodations which it needs and is unable to pay for; and
this is done by the churches of Chicago. The seating capacity of the
churches is considerably beyond the regular church attendance, and there
is not a church in the city whose seats are not practically free to any who
wish to attend, but are unable, or who have not the disposition, to pay.
Protestant, Catholic, Jew or Infidel has no excuse for not attending divine
worship, and attending it in the best churches of either of these three
principal divisions of religious people. But the churches, not satisfied with
thus extending gospel privileges from their home edifices, are prosecuting
an extended and noble city mission work, which is found in almost every
section of the city in which there is not the means or the disposition to
sustain public worship. Nearly every Protestant church of prominence in
the city sustains at least one mission, and the Catholic church is always
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
93
found ministering among the poor and neglected. The good which these
missions accomplish can scarcely be estimated, even in a sanitary point of
view, to say nothing of the moral influence. One of them is a faithful
illustration of them all: In 1877 the Third Presbyterian Church opened a
Mission Sabbath School upon the site once occupied by the Seventh Pres-
byterian Church, at the corner of Halsted and Harrison streets. Into that
school was gathered from six hundred to a thousand of the worst-clad*
rudest and most uncleanly children to be found in the world. They had
no respect for authority, legal or moral, and it was not an uncommon thing
to find some of the older boys prepared to defy any attempt to oppose their
will, with razors, knives and pistols. Law could not usually operate to.
curb these developing criminal dispositions, and it remained for the church
to step in and save society from future depredations by maturing outlaws,
save the youthful desperadoes themselves, and to insure a brighter future
to the homes from whence they came. The church did it. It has con-
tinued that school from its opening until the present, moving it, however,
to a much less promising field, on Desplaines street, between Adams and
Jackson. The school now is one of the best behaved and cleanly in the
city, and the homes from which the scholars come are clean, although often
they are the homes of extreme poverty. The owners of property and
those comfortably situated in the community took a special interest in the
school at its inception, and enrolled themselves in the Adult Bible Class,
which has become one of the largest and most respectable classes in the
United States. This is a picture which can find a companion picture in
nearly every church, and certainly in every prominent denomination
in the city; and with such generous and successful effort to benefit man-
kind in every relation of life, the church of Chicago is entitled to a
most generous public sympathy and sustenance.
94
H. W. THOMAS, D. D.
The pulpit of Chicago has presented to the world some of the most
brilliant minds that have ever thrilled it with thought or led it along the
path of progress. Conscientious in the discharge of the responsible duties
of their high office, and advancing carefully in the interpretation of the
relation of man to God, some of our divines have grown restless under
the restraint of creeds, and have essayed to preach the gospel of Christ in
its beautiful simplicity, relieved of any trimming by denominational
architects. As the human mind has expanded, and grasped truths, and
solved mysteries, which to the ages past were obscured and unfathomable,
these men believe that a more intimate knowledge of the divine gov-
ernment has been inseparably connected with this increase of knowledge,
and that while God has not changed, His character and word have become
susceptible of a fuller and more satisfactory interpretation. The growing
liberality of the pulpit is not, as the superficial thinker affects to believe, a
falling away from God, but is rather a nearer approach to Him, and is
made possible through a higher intelligence and a more perfect under-
standing of man and nature. It would be discouraging to think that
while the discovery of new forces in nature was being constantly made,
and that while our intercourse with the skies, the ocean, and the caverns
was becoming more intimate, our knowledge of the Creator should remain
unenlarged. Dr. H. W. Thomas is among those advanced thinkers who
do not believe that the ages which were distinguished for having less
general intelligence than our own, were capable of having as clear a con-
ception of the Deity as is now possible, or that with less knowledge
they were capable of devising creeds which would answer the demands
of a greater intelligence and more advanced age. Although devoted to
the general principles of Methodism, he has no sympathy with denomina-
tional exclusiveness, and no respect for those features of church organization
and conduct which make Christianity repulsive to the world. Believing
that men can be reasoned with better than they can be frightened, and
that they can be wooed easier than they can be driven, his speech is always
silver and his sentiments soothing. The world draws closer to the king-
dom which he presents, when his voice is heard in the midst of its beauty,
and in thus bringing the church and the world together, men who think
as he does, believe that both are benefited — the one by having the necessity
and responsibility of its sacred mission constantly presented to it, and the
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
95
other in the enjoyment of Christian sympathy and influence. Those who
have never desired to know more or other than the past knew, and are
satisfied to follow the beaten path which their fathers trod, wishing for no
change, although there may be new and more flowery paths which lead
up to the same Savior, and through Him into the same heaven, are utterly
unable to understand some of the positions assumed by Dr. Thomas. But
while this has been a fertile source of regret and annoyance to him, he has
steadily followed the light of his reason and the dictates of his conscience,
with a faith in the Divine approval which is as firm as is his determination
to be right even at the expense of his popularity with those who persist
in misinterpreting his motives or his views. With the great majority of
the public, however, his keen intellect, gentleness of manner and the sin-
cerity of his interest in the welfare of his race, have made him a favorite
and a power. During the last few years few men have been more prom-
inently before the public, so thoroughly discussed, or more accurately
estimated ; and yet prominent as he is, he is one of the most unostentatious
and retiring gentlemen that can be met with in a lifetime. Without special
effort to that end, but wholly as the result of his superior character, ability
and culture he has achieved prominence as naturally as water finds its level.
Dr. Thomas was born in Hampshire county, Virginia, April 29th,
1832, and is the son of Joseph Thomas and Margaret McDonald. Until
arriving at the age of eighteen he lived with his parents, assisting his father
on his farm and attending the district schools. At that age he became
interested in the subject of religion, and after his conversion, left the
parental roof for the purpose of fitting himself for the gospel ministry, first
entering upon a private course of study under the direction of the Reverend
Dr. McKisson, which he continued for two years, then attended for a
time the Cooperstown Academy, and upon leaving that institution entered
Berlin Seminary, which was then under the principalship of Professor Eber-
hart, now of Chicago. During all this time, in addition to his duties as a
student, he assumed those of preaching in those localities which were not
otherwise supplied with gospel ministration.
In the Spring of 1855 he removed to Iowa, his father having pre-
ceded him during the previous Autumn. In order to recuperate his
health, which had somewhat suffered from his ceaseless toil as student and
preacher, he again applied himself to farm labor. In a few months, how-
ever, he began preaching again, serving as a supply on a circuit for the
remainder of the year. In 1856 he joined the Iowa Conference, and
under it filled appointments at Marshall, Fort Madison, Washington,
Mount Pleasant and Burlington, in each of which places he was a useful
and favorite minister and citizen. While at Burlington, he received a '
special request to become the pastor of the Park Avenue Methodist Episco-
pal Church of this city, with which request he complied, and remained
with that church three yeai's. He was then removed by the Rock River
Conference to the First Church of Chicago, and after serving that for the
full time allowed by the rules of the Methodist church, he was appointed
96 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
to the pastorate of the First Methodist Episcopal Church at Aurora, Illinois.
After two years' service with this church the Centenary Church, of this
city, requested the Conference to appoint Dr. Thomas to its pulpit, which
was done, and after two reappointments he left the Centenary, in obedience
to the three- year rule, in the Autumn of 1880.
During the last two years of his pastorate in this church, Dr. Thomas
had labored under exceedingly unpleasant circumstances, the Conference
in 1878 having placed him under censure for heretical teachings. That
he might be better and fully understood, therefore, his farewell sermon to
the people of Centenary was a plain statement of his belief, and it created
a profound sensation, both inside and outside of the Methodist church.
He averred himself as a disbeliever in the penal theory of the atonement,
or that Christ was punished as a sinner, and in the verbal inspiration of
the Bible; and he expressed the belief that there was hope for a soul that
should either here or hereafter cease its antagonism to the will of God.
At the session of the Rock River Conference; which convened the same
week, Dr. Thomas demanded, after some further opposition to his teach-
ings had been developed, that that body should proceed to the settlement
of his case, as a duty which it owed not less to him than to itself. A com-
mittee was appointed to consider the matter, and its report contained a
request that Dr. Thomas withdraw from the Methodist church, which he
absolutely declined to do. The next step in the case will be a trial for
heresy, the result of which upon the church itself it would be difficult to
conjecture, while Dr. Thomas will not be adversely affected, whatever the
verdict may be.
Dr. Thomas is a ready and eloquent speaker, a logical thinker and a
fine writer. His sermons are extemporaneous, and the great congrega-
tions which assemble to hear him, are entranced by the simplicity of his
style, his easy delivery, evident convictions, and his ready mingling of the
philosophical with the ideal. His sermons, lectures and addresses are
never irksome to the hearer. There is always so much of brilliancy in
them that the most uninterested in the subject cannot resist the fascination
of its presentation.
Dr. Thomas was married March ic/th, 1855, to Emeline C. Merrick,
who has been a most faithful wife, friend and helper to her husband through
all his varied experience. When upon the lower rounds of the ladder,
she was by his side to encourage, and now that he is where the world be-
holds laurels encircling his brow, the devotee! wife is also discerned as a
sharer of his fame. Of seven children, Homer, now a student in Rush
Medical College, and a young man of rare promise, is the only survivor.
97
DAVID SWING.
David Swing was born April i8th, 1830, in the city of Cincinnati,
Ohio. The Swing genealogical tree had its origin in Germany — his
ancestors having migrated to this country from Germany in or about the
year 1726. His father, whose name was also, David, married Knrinda
Gazley, and the subject of this sketch was their younger son. David
Swing, Sr., was engaged for many years in the steamboat business on
the Ohio river, where he was a man of recognized ability and moral
worth, honorable in his dealings, and regarded with respect and esteem
by all who knew him. Technically he was not a Christian; practically
he was a man who represented a noble and generous manhood, and led
an unblamable life. Dying of cholera in 1832, he left his two sons to
the care of the widowed mother, who was a devoted Christian, and
instilled into the mind of David those principles of the Christian life
which he has always so faithfully illustrated.
When David was only seven years old, his mother married a second
time, and the family removed to Reedsburgh, Ohio, and three years later
settled on a farm near Williamsburgh, in the same State, where David
was occupied for eight years in farming, attending the public school dur-
ing the Winter season, and at such other times as the duties of his farm
life would permit.
These were not lost years, nor was the situation adverse to the
realization of the wide and noble culture which he subsequently attained.
As the oak, which is to be tried by storm and tempest, strikes its roots
deep into the soil, and takes hold of the very rocks, so this rude life on
the farm enabled young Swing to lay the foundation of that sturdy man-
hood and remarkable self-poise, which his recent life has so conspicuously
manifested. Left without the help of books or teachers to any consider-
able degree, he developed the observing, reflective, and rational faculties,
and became a student of nature. Here also, he acquired that physical
vigor, which has enabled him to perform a vast amount of intellectual
labor and public service, without breaking down. And to his early
meditative farm life he was likewise indebted in part for the originality
of his thought and the wealth, beauty and fertility of his illustrations.
It would be a mistake, however, to suppose that during these years young
Swing made no progress in learning, as interpreted by books. At the
age of eighteen he had so industriously used his limited means of informa-
9& CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
tion, that he had fitted himself to enter, as he did, the Miami University
at Oxford, Ohio, where he pursued the classical course, and graduated in
1852, having spent about four years in the University.
Upon leaving this institution, he commenced the study of divinity
under the instructions of the Reverend Doctor Rice, of Cincinnati. Re-
ceiving an invitation from the University — his alma mater — to the chair
of Greek and Latin, he accepted it; and returned to Oxford, where, for
thirteen years, he performed the duties of Professor of Ancient Languages
in the most acceptable manner. During this period he also preached as
opportunities presented themselves, and the onerous duties of his profes-
sorship would permit. Soon after entering upon his work as professor —
in 1854 — he was married to Elizabeth Porter, a most estimable lady,
daughter of Dr. Porter, a physician at Oxford.
In the year 1866, Professor Swing was invited to Chicago to the care
of the Westminster Presbyterian Church, which invitation he accepted.
The originality, liberality and thoroughly Christian spirit in which he
performed his work attracted to his church a-large number of thoughtful
people, and his popularity led the North Presbyterian Church to seek
a union with the Westminster Church, and the two became united under
the new name of the Fourth Presbyterian Church.
The great fire occurred the first year of this union, and swept away the
church edifice and all the homes of its five hundred parishioners-^only
two excepted. From this fearful calamity Professor Swing saved noth-
ing— all his furniture, library, and the intellectual work of years being
destroyed in the conflagration, and he and his family — wife and two
daughters — spent the night of the eventful October ninth without shelter
on the open prairie.
For nearly a year he occupied as a place of meeting, Standard Hall1,
which had escaped the fire, and subsequently finding this commodious
hall too strait for the increasing congregations which flocked to hear him,
McVicker's Theater was engaged, and here he continued his preaching —
attracting crowds of the most intelligent and thoughtful people of the city,
and strangers sojourning at the hotels to his meetings. Upon the rebuild-
ing of his Fourth Church at the corner of Rush and Superior streets, he
regretfully relinquished his broad. and congenial field of labor in the
center of the city, and assumed the duties of his former pastorate. But
his peace was destined to be rudely broken and a new order of trials
awaited him. The Fourth Presbyterian Church, like McVicker's Theater,
was soon crowded to repletion by the anxious throng of members and
strangers, which flocked to hear him, and his work was moving forward
steadily and vigorously, when Reverend Francis L. Patton, D. D., com-
menced a series of ecclesiastical prosecutions, which seriously interfered
with his work, and ultimately resulted in Professor Swing's withdrawal
from the Presbyterian Church.
On the thirteenth of April, 1874, Professor Swing, "upon the com-
plaint of Francis L. Patton," presented himself at the bar of the Chicago
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
99
Presbytery to answer to two general charges, supported by twenty-eight
specifications, the Reverend Arthur Mitchell being the Moderator.
Stripped of their verbiage these charges were: First, that Professor
Swing had not been zealous and faithful in maintaining the truth of the
gospel, and faithful and diligent in the exercise of the duties of his office
as a Presbyterian minister. Second, that Professor Swing did not receive
and adopt the Presbyterian Confession of Faith as containing the system
of doctrine .taught in the Holy Scriptures. It would be tedious and
superfluous to give the twenty-eight specifications by which the charges
were attempted to be supported.
The formal charge of "unfaithfulness and lack of diligence in his
calling as a minister of the Presbyterian Church," in view of Professor
Swing's laborious and indefatigable service rendered to that church, could
have no other meaning, than that his work was not legitimately that of
a good Presbyterian Gospel Minister. And the charge, that Professor
Swing "did not receive the Presbyterian Confession of Faith, as express-
ing the Scriptural system of Truth" was the definite charge of heresy.
The two charges, therefore, were one: Professor Swing was guilty of
holding and teaching heresy. Upon this general issue, therefore, the
prosecutor and the prosecuted were brought face to face. The trial
occupied more than six weeks, and excited almost universal interest.
The proceedings were reported daily in the newspapers, and throughout
the entire country the utmost anxiety was manifested in regard to the
disposition which the Chicago Presbytery would make of the charge of
heresy, preferred against one of the most learned and earnest men of the
time. Fortunately, though the struggle was protracted, the issue was
not uncertain, and after giving the prosecutor the fullest opportunity of
maintaining his charges, the Presbytery was brought to a vote, which
showed a large majority of the members to be opposed to conviction —
only thirteen members out of the sixty-one constituting the Presbytery,
voting with the prosecutor.
Upon the rendering of the verdict of acquittal, Dr. Patton gave
notice of appeal, and thus announced his purpose to prolong the warfare.
The Fourth Presbyterian Church adhered to Professor Swing, and
requested him to continue his work as its pastor, to which he assented,
preaching to crowded houses, until Professor Patton's continued prosecu-
tions led him reluctantly to withdraw from the Presbytery of Chicago,
and from the jurisdiction of an ecclesiastical system, which rendered it
possible that a single member should compel him to spend his valuable
time in personal vindication and defense. While, therefore, appreciating
the chivalric manner in which his friends in the Presbytery had come to
his defense, he could not consent to waste his valuable time in a war of
words, or in a mere personal vindication; he, therefore, withdrew from
the Presbytery, and still continued the pastor of the Fourth Presbyterian
Church. Professor Patton then sought to inculpate the Presbytery itself
for permitting an alleged heretic to labor as a pastor over one of its
ioo CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
churches, and Professor Swing terminated the whole controversy by
resigning his pastorate.
The friends of Professor Swing then inaugurated the movement
which has resulted in the Central Church, which now worships in Cen-
tral Music Hall.
IOJ
CHAPTER IX.
PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
The community which is proud of its schools, and which has schools
that are worthy to incite pride, gives evidence of a high degree of patriot-
ism in its midst, and of an intelligent appreciation of the needs of a
republic. Intelligence is the chief corner stone of republicanism. When
our electors approach the ballot box with a complete sense of responsibility,
and with sufficient knowledge to faithfully perform their duty, the dema-
gogue will have lost his power in the American Republic, and our institu-
tions will be safe for the present and safe forever. Statesmanship, and not
selfish aspiration, will then control the primary and the elections. Our
marvelous Republic can hope to endure only by educating the masses. The
children of our homes, and those without homes, must be educated for
responsible citizenship. In every State of our Union, and in every town-
ship of the States, education must be regarded as the bulwark of liberty
and the only safeguard against ultimate anarchy. All our conflicts with
arms in this country, were made possible by ignorance. Especially was
this true of the last and great rebellion, which was a grand culmination of
ingenious imposition upon the uninformed. The rebellion of 1861 was
bom in the nullification doctrines of 1832. A nation which had come into
existence amidst the ringing of bells and a concert of huzzas which echoed
in every heart and hamlet of the Colonies, then found that it was in danger.
A patriot's will for the time being saved it. The country afterward
stepped proudly on to greatness and glory, but the spirit of rebellion never
died. It lived in the hearts of designing men, and nurtured itself in the
hearts of those who were imperfectly informed. At last it culminated, and
an ocean of blood gushed forth to wash out a ravine of four years in the
peace and prosperity of the nation. Such a result could never have been
possible in this country, if the following had been as intelligent as the
leaders. The civil war of 1861 was bred in a section where the common
school is imperfectly sustained, and where there are now thousands of voters
who from lack of intelligence, are utterly disqualified as electors under a
form of government in which the majority rules, and in which one vote,
although cast ignorantly, makes the majority.
But how are the masses to be educated? Only in the public schools.
Colleges are self-supporting, and the vast majority who are to be educated,
cannot afford to contribute to their support. Our forty-eight million of
population must look to the Public School as the source of education for the
1O2 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
people. Chicago has realized to the fullest extent all that we have asserted,
and has perfected a magnificent system of education for all who desire to
avail themselves of it. The city has the right to be proud of her public
schools, for notwithstanding the youth of the city they are as complete as
any in the country.
Chicago very early in its history showed an interest in education; and
we are largely indebted to Shepherd Johnston, Clerk of the Board of Edu-
cation, for this and other information, contained in this chapter. In 1810,
Robert Forsythe, a lad of thirteen years of age, and who afterward became
Paymaster in the United States Army, began teaching school in Chicago,
having for his first pupil John H. Kinzie, son of John Kinzie, who has
been so conspicuous in this history. But while Master Forsythe was the
first teacher, his teaching can hardly be termed that of a school teacher,
for the first school of which we have any record was opened in 1816, by a
discharged soldier named William L. Cox. The children composing this
school were four from the Kinzie family and three children from fort
Dearborn. In 1820 a school was opened in the fort itself, and was taught
by a sergeant of the army. From that time until 1829 we have no record
or other information in regard to schools. In 1829, however, the children
of J. B. Beaubien and Mark Beaubien were gathered into a school which
was taught by Charles H. Beaubien, son of J. B. Beaubien. The next
school of which we have any account was opened in June, 1830, by Stephen
Forbes, who was employed as teacher by J. B. Beaubien and by a lieu-
tenant, who had resigned his commission in 'the army, and who became
known in the war of the rebellion as General Hunter. This school had
twenty-five pupils, who came from the fort, and from families outside.
After teaching a year, assisted all the time by his wife, Mr. Forbes was
succeeded by a gentleman named Foot. Mr. Forsythe afterward became
Sheriff of the county, and then removed to Ohio.
The next patron of schools was Colonel R. J. Hamilton, whose name
has already become familiar to the reader. In 1831 he became Commis-
sioner of School Lands for Cook county, and had charge of the school funds.
He and another citizen employed John Watkins to teach school in the
North Division. The first school house in Chicago was built by Colonel
Hamilton and Colonel Owens, on the north bank of the river, just east of
Clark street. The next school, in line, was taught by Eliza Chappel, who
came from Rochester, New York, and began teaching in 1833, assisted by
Elizabeth Beach and Mary Burrows. Her school, as described by William
H. Wells, former Superintendent of Schools, was an infant school of about
twenty children, kept in a log house on South Water street.
During the latter part of 1833 G. T. Sproat arrived from Boston,
Massachusetts, and opened an English and classical school for boys, in the
First Baptist Church, which then stood on South Water street not far from
Franklin. Sarah L. Warren, afterward Mrs. Abel E. Carpenter, was an
assistant teacher in this school. The few buildings that then existed were
mostly on South Water street. Mrs. Carpenter in letters written to friends
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. IQ?
in later years, said that it was not uncommon for her to see prairie wolves
on her way to and from her school, and that their howling could be heard
at any time in the day. She also wrote that although sometimes annoyed
by Indians, the greatest annoyance, by far, was mud.
In 1834 Mr. Sproat's school became a Public School; that is, Mr.
Sproat complied with the law, which provided that if a teacher kept a
record, and had it certified by certain school officers, he should have a por-
tion of the income on school funds. The schools of the period were sup-
ported by subscriptions, and the public money which a compliance with
the law by a teacher secured, was appropriated to lessen the subscriptions
pro rata. The law also required that teachers of public schools should
give gratuitous instruction to orphans and children of indigent parents.
Dr. Henry Vander Bogart succeeded Mr. Sproat as teacher in this school,
the same year that it jDecame a public school, being himself succeeded
before the close of the year by Thomas Wright, who was followed in 1835
by James McLellan.
During the Winter of 1834-5 George Davis opened a school in the
second story of a building on Lake street between Clark and Dearborn
streets. In the following year he removed his school into the First Presby-
terian Church on Clark street, between Lake and Randolph streets.
In the meantime Miss Chappel and her assistants had superseded their
infant school with a boarding school, which they conducted in a rented
house, and the main purpose of which was to fit teachers for the common
schools in the new settlements. Miss Chappel gave up her school in
1834-5 t° Ruth Leavenworth, who afterward became the wife of Joseph
Hanson.
John S. Wright built a structure for Miss Chappel's school, and it was
the first building designed for exclusively school purposes ever erected in
Chicago. "In 1835," says a historian, "our young Sunday School Librarian,
John S. Wright, built at his own expense, on Clark street, a school house
for their own use, and that house soon became the Public School house, and
Miss Ruth Leavenworth was secured by Miss Chappel as its teacher."
Mr. Wright himself says of it, in 1867, in his "Chicago, Past, Present and
Future:" "The honor is due to my sainted mother. Having then plenty
of money, it was spent very much as she desired. Interested in an infant
school, she wanted the building and it was built."
Miss Leavenworth discontinued her school in the Spring of 1836, but
Frances Langdon Willard very soon opened a school in the same building
for the instruction of young ladies in the higher branches of education.
Louisa GhTord was Miss Willard's assistant, and later her successor. A
primary department was added, and this school became a Public Scbool,
under the law. Miss Willard subsequently opened a school upon her
original plan, but did not continue it more than a year.
From Shepherd Johnston's Historical Sketches of the Public Schools,
and by his permission, we take what follows in this chapter:
The curious searcher in the old statute books of the State of Illinois,
104 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
will find in the Acts of 1835, an Act adopted in February of that year
which establishes a special School System for township thirty-nine north,
range fourteen east of the third principal meridian; and by his map he
finds this means Chicago. The incorporation of the city by the next
legislature caused the repeal of this Act, but it belongs to the history of our
schools. Its substance was as follows: Sections one, two and three provide
that the legal voters shall elect annually, on the first Monday in June, either
five or seven School Inspectors, who were to examine teachers, prescribe
text books, visit the schools, etc. They were to recommend to the County
Commissioners the division of the township into districts, and the Commis-
sioners were required to lay off, divide and alter the districts as the Inspec-
tors might from time to time recommend.
SECTION 4. "The legal voters in each school district shall annually
elect three persons to be Trustees of Common Schools, whose duty it shall
be to employ suitable and qualified teachers; to see that the schools are
free, and that all white children in the district have an opportunity of
attending them, under such regulations as the Inspectors may make; to
take charge of the school houses and of all the school property belonging
to the district, and to manage the whole financial concerns thereof. The
said Trustees shall annually levy and collect a tax sufficient to defray the
necessary expenses of fuel, rent of school-room, and furniture for the same;
and they shall levy and collect such additional taxes as a majority of the
legal voters of the district, at a meeting called for that purpose, shall
direct: Provided, that such additional taxes shall never exceed one-half of
one per cent, per annum upon all the taxable property in the district; all of
which taxes the said Trustees shall have full power to assess and collect.''
Mr. John Brown taught a private school in the North Division, near
the corner of Dearborn and Wolcott streets, in 1836, and until March,
1837. ^e cease(l to teach in consequence of being severely beaten by some
of his pupils, and sold out his lease to Mr. Edward Murphy, who took
decided means to secure success.' On opening his school with thirty-six
pupils, he addressed them, setting forth the necessity of observing the rules
of the school and promising chastisement to those who should infringe
them. "The day after," says Mr. Murphy, "I placed an oak sapling an
inch in diameter on my desk. That afternoon a Mr. S., who owned the
building, came into the school room, and seeing the walls decorated with
caricatures and likenesses of almost every animal from a rabbit to an ele-
phant, he got in a raging passion, and used rather abusive language. I
complained; he became more violent. I walked to my desk, took the
sapling and shouted 'clear out,' which he obeyed by a rapid movement.
This trifling incident effectually calmed the ringleaders, some of whom now
occupy honorable and respectable positions in society."
Mr. Murphy's vigorous administration secured the admiration of the
school officers, who rented the building, and made him a Public School
teacher, from August, 1837, to November, 1838, at a salary of eight hundred
dollars per annum.
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 105
The earliest records of the Public Schools of the city of Chicago to
be found among the official documents of the city, commence with the
incorporation of the city in the year 1837. From this time till about
the year 1840 there does not appear to have been any system outlined which
gave uniformity of action in the management of the various Public Schools"
of the city. The records appear to show that there were in the year 1837,
seven school districts, but there is nothing to indicate where these districts
were located. From the records of the election of Trustees of school
districts held about that time, and from the names of the teachers signed
to the reports from the various districts, districts one and two, and per-
haps district number three, were in the South Division of the city; dis-
tricts number four and five were in the West Division of the city; and
districts number six and seven were in the North Division of the city.
The reports of attendance in these districts do not appear to have been
made with any very great regularity, and in many of the districts the
schools appear to have been closed for much of the year, and in some of
them there does not appear to have been any school held.
The following are the provisions for Public Schools contained in the
city charter, approved March 4th, 1837, at the time of the incorporation
of the city:
SECTION 83. That the Common Council ot" the city of Chicago, shall, by virtue
of their office, be Commissioners of Common Schools in and for the said city, and shall
have and possess all the rights, powers, and authority necessary for the proper manage-
ment of said schools.
SECTION 84. The said Common Council shall have power to lay off and divide
the said citv into school districts, and from time to time alter the same and create new
ones, as circumstances may require.
SECTION 85. The Common Council shall annually appoint a number of Inspectors
of Common Schools in said city, not exceeding twelve, and not less than five, and in
case of a vacancy in the office, the Common Council shall from time to time appoint
others; which Inspectors, or some of them, shall visit all the Public Schools in said city
at least once a month, inquire into the progress of the scholars, and the government of
the schools, examining all persons offering themselves as candidates for teachers, and
when found well qualified give them certificates thereof gratuitously, and remove them
for any good cause ; and it shall be the duty of the said Inspectors to report to the Com-
mon Council, from time to time, any suggestions and improvements that they may
deem necessary or proper for the prosperity of said schools.
SECTION 86. That the legal voters in each school district shall annually elect
three persons to be Trustees of Common Schools therein, whose duty it shall be to em-
ploy qualified and suitable teachers, to pay the wages of such teachers, when qualified,
out of the money which shall come into their hands from the Commissioner of
School Lands, so far as such money shall be sufficient for that purpose, and to collect
the residue of such wages from all persons liable therefor. They shall call special meet-
ings of the inhabitants of the district liable to pay taxes whenever they shall deem it
necessary and proper ; shall give notice of the time and place for special district meet-
ings at least five days before said meeting shall be held by leaving a written or printed
notice thereof at the place of abode of each of said inhabitants ; make out a tax list of
every district tax which the inhabitants of said district may, by a vote of a majority
present, direct at any meeting, called as aforesaid, for that purpose, which list shall con-
tain the names of all the taxable inhabitants residing in the district at the time of making
io6 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
out the list, and the amount of tax payable by each inhabitant set opposite his name,
which tax may be levied upon the real and personal estate of said inhabitants; they shall
annex to such tax list a warrant directed to one of the city constables residing in the
ward in which said district may be for the collection of the sums in said list mentioned,
and said constable shall receive five cents on each dollar thereof for his fees. The said
Trustees shall have power to purchase or lease a site for the District School house, as
designated by a meeting of the district, and to build, hire or purchase, keep in repair and
furnish said school house with necessary fuel and appendages, out of the funds collected
and paid to them for such purposes.
SECTION 87. The Trustees of each district shall, at the end of every quarter, make
a report to the School Inspectors in writing, setting forth the number of schools within
the district, the time that each has been taught during the previous quarter, and by
whom, the number of scholars at each school, and the time of their attendance during
the quarter, to be ascertained from an exact list or roll of the scholars' names to
be kept by the teacher for that purpose, which list shall be sworn to or affirmed by
said teacher.
SECTION 88. That it shall be the duty of the Commissioner of School Lands in
Cook county to make, semi-annually, to the Common Council of said city, a full and
correct report, in such manner as they shall direct of the state of the school fund arising
from the sale or lease of school lands in township thirty-nine north, range fourteen east,
in Cook county, with the interest accruing thereon.
SECTION 89. The School Inspectors shall quarterly apportion said school money
among the several districts in said city according to the number of scholars in each
school therein between the ages of five and twenty-one, and also according to the time
that each scholar has actually attended such school during the previous quarter, to be
ascertained by the reports of said Trustees and teachers.
SECTION 90. Whenever the said apportionment shall have been made, the School
Inspectors shall make out a schedule thereof, setting forth the amount due to each
district, the person or persons entitled to receive the same, and shall deliver the said
schedule, together with the report of the Trustees, and the lists or rolls of the teachers
to the Common Council, and thereupon the said Common Council shall issue a warrant
directed to the Commissioner of School Lands, to pay over such part of the interest of
the school moneys of said township as shall be therein expressed ; Provided that nothing
herein contained shall authorize the expenditure of the principal of any part of the
school fund.
SECTION 91. The freeholders and inhabitants of any school district in the said
city, by a vote of two-thirds of the persons present and entitled to vote, at a meeting of
such district convened after notice of the object of said meeting shall have been pub-
lished for one week in the corporation newspaper of the said city, and after said notice
shall have been served on every such freeholder or inhabitant by reading the same to
him, or, in case of his absence, by leaving the same at his place of residence at least five
days previous to such meeting, may determine either separately or in conjunction with
any other school district or districts in the said city, to have a High School created for
such district or districts as shall so agree to unite for that purpose, and may vote a sum
not exceeding five thousand dollars to be raised for erecting a building for such High
School. And on evidence of such votes, and of such notice having been published and
served as above provided, being presented to the Common Council, they may, in their
discretion, authorize the erecting of a High School in such district, or may authorize the
several districts so agreeing to be erected into one district, which shall hereafter form
one school district, and all the property, right and interest of the several districts so
united shall belong to and be vested in the Trustees of the said united districts, and the
Trustees thereof shall have all the power of Trustees of school districts, shall be elected
in the same manner, and shall be subject to all the duties and obligations of Trustees of
Common School districts.
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 107
SECTION 92. The Common Council shall annually publish on the second Tuesday
of February, in the corporation newspaper of the city, the number of pupils instructed
therein the preceding year, the several branches of education pursued by them, and the
receipts and expenditures of each school, specifying the sources of such receipts and
the object of such expenditures.
The reports for the quarter ending November ist, 1837, show the
following attendance at the various schools then in session :
DISTRICT. TEACHERS. PUPILS ENROLLED.
One George C. Collins u.
Two James McClellan 1O*
Three Hiram Baker c2
Five Otis King '.' .'.'.'.' .'.'.'.'.'
Seven Edward Murphy !..... 84
Total ; ~
The following rule governing the length of terms of the schools and de-
fining what constituted one quarter of schooling was adopted August, 1837:
The quarters shall begin on the first Mondays in February, May, August and
November, and continue five and a half days in each week, which time shall be under-
stood to constitute one quarter of one year's schooling, and for teaching to the satisfac-
tion of all concerned such time, the teacher shall be entitled to one quarter of a vear's
salary.
The school house in district number five was located on the west side
of Canal street, a little north of Lake street, opposite the old building still
standing on the northeast corner of Canal and Lake streets, known at that
time as the Green Tree Hotel. During the Winter of 1838, it was taught
by Mr. C. S. Bailey, who was succeeded in the Spring of 1838 by
Calvin DeWolf. The school numbered about sixty pupils, several of whom
were Indian children. An Indian family, by the name of Laframboise,
lived a little south of the school building on Canal street. This school was
subsequently taught for a short time by Thomas Hoyne.
The following amendment was made to the provisions of the city
charter for carrying on the Public Schools of the city, by an Act of the
State legislature, approved March ist, 1839:
SECTION i. That the school lands and the school funds of township thirty-nine
Tiorth, range fourteen east of third principal meridian, be, and the same are hereby
vested in the city of Chicago ; and the Common Council of said city shall at all times
have power to do all acts and things in relation to said school lands and school funds
which they may think proper to their safe preservation and efficient management!
and to sell or lease said lands on such terms and at such times as the said Common
Council shall deem most advantageous, and on such sale or sales, leasing or leasings,
execute and deliver all proper conveyances therefor; which said conveyances shall be
signed by the Mavor of said city, and countersigned by the Clerk thereof, and sealed
with the corporate seal of said city ; Provided, That the proceeds arising from such sales
shall be added to and constitute a part of the school fund of said township; and Pro-
vided, that nothing shall be done to impair the principal of said fund, or to appropriate
interest accruing from the same to any other purpose than the support of Public Schools
in said township; and Provided further, that any schools established in said township,
and without the limits of said city shall be entitled to the same benefits and advantages
from said fund as they would be without the passage of this Act.
SECTION 2. It shall be the duty of the Commissioner of School Lands for Cook
loS CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
county to deliver to such person or persons as the Common Council of the city of
Chicago shall direct, all the books, papers, notes, mortgages, or other evidences of debt
belonging to said school fund of said township thirty-nine, and all moneys belonging to
the same, taking the receipt of such person or persons therefor, which said receipt shall
be a full indemnity to him for so doing.
SECTION 3. The Common Council of Chicago shall have power to raise all
sufficient sum or sums of money, by taxing the real and personal estate in said city for
the following purposes, to wit : to build school houses, to establish, support and maintain
Common and Public Schools, and to supply the inadequacy of the school fund for the
payment of teachers ; to purchase or lease a site or sites for school houses ; to erect, hire,
or purchase buildings suitable for said school houses ; to keep in repair and furnish the
same with necessary fixtures and furniture whenever they may deem it expedient; and
the taxes for that purpose shall be assessed and collected in the same manner that other
city taxes are or may be. The said Common Council shall also have power to fix the
amount of the compensation to be allowed to teachers in the different schools, to pre-
scribe the school books to be used and the studies to be taught in the different schools,
and pass all such ordinances and by-laws as they may from time to time deem necessary
in relation to said schools, and the government and management of the same, and of the
school lands and funds belonging to the said township.
SECTION 4. The said Common Council shall annually appoint seven persons for
Inspectors of Common Schools, and three persons in each district to be Trustees of
Common Schools in and for said district, whose powers and duties shall be prescribed
by the said Common Council.
SECTION 5. Sections eighty-five, eighty-six, eighty-seven, eighty-eight, eighty-
nine, ninety, and ninety-one of the Act entitled "An Act to incorporate the city of
Chicago," passed March 4th, 1837, and all other Acts and parts of Acts coming within
the purview of this Act be, and the same are, hereby repealed so far as they relate to-
the said township thirty-nine, or the city of Chicago. '
Early in the year 1840 the charge of the school fund was transferred
from the Commissioner of School Lands for Cook county to the School
Agent, William H. Brown, who discharged the duties of the office for
a period of thirteen years, ten years of which he served without cost.
The report of the Commissioner of School Lands shows the condition
of the school fund at the close of the year 1839 to have been as follows:
Loaned on personal security, not in suit $11 564 22
Loaned on mortgage, not in suit 12 437 74
Amount in suit 6 15415 oo.
Amount in judgment 7 366 36
Included in note given for interest 64 oo
Total securities $37 977 32
Cash on hand 648 15
Total $38 625 47
The first written records of the School Inspectors commenced in No-
vember, 1840. The first step toward uniformity of text books to be used
in the schools was taken December 9th, 1840, when Worcester's Primer,
Parley's First, Second and Third Books of History, and an Elementary
Speller were adopted.
In October, 1840, the Board of School Inspectors recommended the
organization of the city into four school districts;, district number one to-
comprise the first ward, being at that time, that portion of the South
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 109
Division of the city lying east of Clark street; district number two to com-
prise the second ward, being that part of the South Division lying between
Clark street and the South Branch of the river; district number three to
comprise the third and fourth wards, being the entire West Division of
the city; and district number four to comprise the fifth and sixth wards,
being the entire North Division of the city. In November, 1840,
the School Inspectors recommended that, in view of the necessities of the
children, the Trustees of each district be directed to procure immediately
rooms in which to hold schools, and take all necessary steps to put the
schools in operation, also that a tax of one mill be levied for the support of
schools.
The school building in district number one, the only one owned by
the city, was located where the Tribune building now stands, corner of
Madison and Dearborn streets; the building in district number two, was
on the north side of Randolph street, about midway between Fifth avenue
and Franklin street; the building in district number three, was on West
Monroe street, facing south, a little west of Canal street; and the building
in district number four was on the corner of Cass and Kinzie streets.
In June, 1841, the School Inspectors reported that for the four months
ending in March, there had been expended $563.32 for teachers, and
$520.94 for fuel, rent of school-houses, repairs, etc.; that upon the present
plan it would require $1,800 to pay the teachers for one year; that it would
be necessary to levy a tax of one-tenth of one per cent, upon all the tax-
able property of the city.
The School Inspectors voted, March loth, 1842, that a school be
established in the Dutch Settlement, provided that a school house be fur-
nished; and on the sixteenth of the same month they recommended to the
Common Council that the materials for building a school house in
the Dutch Settlement be furnished, provided the inhabitants would build the
house. The cost to the city of this building, was two hundred and eleven
dollars. The Dutch Settlement was in district number four, in ' the
North Division of the city, on what was known as the Green Bay
road, between Chicago and North avenues. The school was known as
school number three, fourth district, and was continued till the permanent
building was erected on the corner of Ohio and LaSalle streets. After the
opening of the new building this building was vacated.
In January, 1846, a petition, signed by residents of this neighborhood,
known, as stated in their petition, as "New Buffalo," was submitted to
the City Council, stating that the school had been discontinued since the
opening of the new building, and asking the privilege of opening a Ger-
man school in the building, to be kept at their own expense, and offering
to purchase the building, stating that at the time of its erection the city
had advanced about one hundred and fifty dollars, and that the balance had
been supplied by themselves. In answer to this petition it was ordered by
the Common Council, January 3Oth, 1846: That the Mayor and Clerk
issue a deed, under the seal of the city, of the school house in the Dutch
1 10 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
Settlement to Michael Diversy and Peter Gabel, to be used for a German
school in that settlement, upon said Diversy and Gabel executing a note
to the school fund for one hundred and ten dollars, payable in twelve
months.
March loth, 1842, the School Inspectors voted that the Chairman and
Secretary be authorized to apply to the Board of Commissioners of the
Illinois and Michigan canal to set apart and designate such lots as may be
selected by this Board for the use of Common Schools. The following
lots were selected by the School Inspectors:
For District No. i. — Lot six, block fifty-eight, original town, the
ground on which Dearborn School building was located, and which is
now occupied by the Crystal Block and Hershey Music Hall.
For District No. 2. — Lot six, block fifty-five, original town, on the
north side of Madison street, between LaSalle street and Fifth avenue,
and at present occupied by the Wadsworth building, numbers 175 to 181
East Madison street.
For District No. 3. — Lot nine, block fifty, original town, situated
on the northwest corner of Madison and Canal streets.
For District No. 4. — Lot five, block four, original town, on North
Wells street, opposite the Northwestern railroad depot, and running
from Kinzie street to South Water street.
In May, 1842, the School Inspectors adopted the following resolution:
"That the School Trustees of school district number three be authorized
to employ a female teacher in said district, at a salary not exceeding two
hundred dollars per annum, for six months, payable in Illinois State bank
bills, or currency when the tax is collected, and to hire a house for the
same; Provided it is fitted up and furnished by the inhabitants of the dis-
trict at their own expense; and that a female school be established in the
second district on the same terms."
The following is a report of average attendance and of expenditures
for schools, during the year 1842 :
No. of Average Paid Incidental Total
Districts. Schools. Attendance. Teachers. Expenses. Expenses.
First 2 107 $ 595 ii $ 92 21 $ 687 32
Second 2 96 479 19 200 20 679 39
Third 2.....^ 71 479 19 11990 599 09
Fourth 3 " 182 69574 43412 1,12986
Total 9 456 $2 249 23 $846 43 $3 095 66
Teacher of Music 356 50
Printing, etc 2500
Expenses of School Fund 397 18
Total Expenditures for the year $3)874 34
The annual report of the Inspectors for 1843, states that the average
membership for the month of December, 1842, was four hundred and
thirty-six; and for December, 1843, it was five hundred and eighty-nine,
an increase of one hundred and fifty-three. The total expenditures for the
year 1843, were three thousand and five hundred and eighty-two dollars
and fifty-one cents; the number of teachers was eight.
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. m
In May, 1844, the first step was taken toward the erection of a perma-
nent school building. The School Inspectors at that date recommended
the erection of a spacious brick building for school number one. The
subject was taken under advisement by the Common Council during the
same month, and on the ninth of May, 1844, tne Committee on Schools,
Ira Miltimore, Chairman, presented a report recommending the erection of
a good, permanent brick school house, on the school lot in the first ward,
sixty by eighty feet, two stories high; to be fitted up on the best and most
approved plan, with particular reference to the health, comfort and con-
venience both of scholars and teachers. The lower story of this building
was completed, ready for occupancy about the middle of January, 1845,
and the whole building was completed in the following Spring. It was
known as school number one, till early in the year 1858, when it received
the name of the Dearborn School. It was located on Madison street,
opposite McVicker's Theater, on the ground now occupied by the Crystal
Block, the Recorder's Office, and Hershey Music Hall. The building was
regarded by many, at the time, as far beyond the needs of the city, and the
Mayor of the city, Augustus Garrett, in his inaugural address, in 1845,
recommended that the "Big School House" be either sold or converted
into an insane asylum, and that one more suitable to the wants of the city
be provided. The building was also pointed to as "Miltimore's Folly."
Upon the opening of the building, districts numbers one and two
were consolidated into one district, and were accommodated in this build-
ing; and from this time till the opening of the new building on block one
hundred and thirteen, school section addition, afterward known as the
Jones School, the reports are headed districts one and two. One year after
the opening of the building there were enrolled in the school five hundred
and forty-three pupils, at the end of the second year six hundred and sixty
pupils, and at the end of the third year eight hundred and sixty-four pupils.
The Dearborn School building was used for school purposes till the
close of the school year in June, 1871, when the lot was leased by the
Common Council to Rand, McNally & Company, and a building known
as Johnson Hall, located on Wabash avenue near Monroe street, was rented
for the accommodation of the school at a rental of thirty-six hundred dol-
lars per annum. The school was continued after the Summer vacation
of 1871, in Johnson Hall, under the charge of Alice L. Barnard, as
Principal, until the great fire of October 8th and 9th, 1871, swept over
the whole territory of the Dearborn School district, when the organization
of the Dearborn School became extinct.
In May, 1845, the Trustees of the respective school districts were
authorized to pay male teachers not to exceed five hundred dollars per
annum, the salaries hitherto being four hundred dollars per annum for
male teachers, and two hundred dollars per annum for female teachers. lii
the previous March the question of the erection of a permanent building in
district number four, in the North Division of the city, was agitated ; and
in June, 1845, tne Committee on Schools of the Common Council, pre-
ii2 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
sented a report recommending the erection of a school building in district
number four, forty-five by seventy feet, two stones high, and the location
of the building on the corner of Ohio and LaSalle streets; and the building
was erected.
The Scammon School building — torn down in 1880 — was erected on
the school lot at the corner of Madison and Halsted streets in 1846-7.
November I3th, 1846, an order was passed by the Common Council
authorizing the employment of a teacher in the southern part of the first
and second wards, upon receiving notification from the Mayor and School
Committee that a suitable school-room had been prepared in a proper
place, and upon condition that said teacher be employed from month to
month, instead of by the year. This was the first beginning of what is
now known as the Jones School. The school was taught by Alice
L. Barnard, now Principal of the Jones School, and was located corner of
Wabash avenue and Twelfth street.
In July, 1848, a school was opened at Bridgeport, and the teacher was
paid for two months, when the School Inspectors discovered that there was
no authority for a continuance of the school, and the school was closed.
September nth, 1848, the Committee on Schools reported that they
had purchased at the sale of canal lands, lot thirteen, block twenty-two,
fractional section fifteen, for a site for a school house, for six hundred and
thirty dollars. This lot is located on the northwest corner of Wabash
avenue and Twelfth street, and is the lot on which the building stood in
which the school in the southern part of districts numbers one and two
was located. This lot was occupied for school purposes till about the time
the Haven School was built. The school in this building was taught by
Alice L. Barnard.
In July, 1849, an order was passed authorizing the purchase of the lot
on which the Franklin School now stands.
In February, 1851, the Common Council authorized the Committee
on Schools to advertise for proposals for a school site in the sixth ward?
north of Kinzie street, and about the same distance west of the river as
school number three; and also to procure plans for a building, and at the
meeting of the Council, April 28th, 1851, a proposition of Henry Smith,
agent, to sell lots twelve to sixteen (both inclusive) in block fourteen,
Ogden's addition, for the sum of twelve hundred and fifty dollars was
accepted, and the Mayor and Clerk were authorized to issue a city bond
for this amount, payable in one year, bearing ten per cent, interest. This
is the site now occupied by the Sangamon Street School, formerly known
as the Washington School, corner of Indiana and Sangamon streets.
May 30th, 1851, the Common Council passed an order authorizing
and empowering the Committee on Schools and the Mayor to negotiate a
loan of eight thousand dollars to be expended in erecting school houses in
the North and West Divisions of the city, payable in two years from the
first day of June, 1851; and also an order authorizing the Committee
on Schools, together with the Board of Inspectors, to adopt plans for said
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. ii-j
buildings, to advertise for proposals for their erection and to let the same
to the lowest bidders, provided the cost of the same shall not exceed four
thousand dollars each. The order authorizing the loaning of eight thou-
sand dollars was repealed at a subsequent meeting of the Council, Septem-
ber i9th, 1851, and an order was adopted in its stead authorizing the issue
of city bonds, payable in two years from June 1st, 1851. July 2d, 1851, the
Committee on Schools reported proposals received for the erection of these
buildings, one to be located corner of Division and Sedgwick streets
(Franklin School building) and the other corner of Indiana and Sangamon
streets (now known as Sangamon Street School building, formerly known
as the Washington School building) and an order was passed authorizing
the award of contracts at a slight advance on the amount fixed, four thou-
sand dollars each. The Washington and Franklin School buildings having
been completed were opened in January, 1852.
In 1853 J°hn D. Philbrick, Principal of the State Normal School,
New Britain, Connecticut, was elected Superintendent of Schools, at a
salary of fifteen hundred dollars per annum. Mr. Philbrick declined to
accept the position; and March 6th, 1854, John C. Dore, Principal of the
Boylston Grammar School of Boston, Massachusetts, was elected. Mr.
Dore assumed the duties of Superintendent of Schools in June, 1854, and
resigned March I5th, 1856, being succeeded by William H. Wells, Princi-
pal of the Normal School at^Westfield, Massachusetts. At the time of the
establishment of the office of Superintendent of Schools, the enrollment of
pupils was about three thousand and the number of teachers was thirty-five.
On February ipth, 1855, an order was passed by the Common Council,
directing the Committee on Schools to receive proposals for the erection of
two wooden school houses, forty-five by twenty-six feet, two stories high,
one on the lot west of Union Park (Brown School) and the other on the
lot now known as the Foster School lot. March 5th, 1855, authority was
given to the Mayor and Clerk to enter into contract for the erection of
these buildings, which were to be completed by June fifteenth, at a cost
not to exceed two thousand and eighty-seven dollars each.
In March, 1856, contracts were awarded for the erection of the
Moseley and Ogden School buildings, and in April of the same year a
petition of residents of the North Division was presented, asking that the
Ogden School building be erected on the lot on Chestnut street, east of
Clark; and the site which was ordered purchased in August, 1855, at
eleven thousand and forty-one dollars and twenty-five cents, but which was
not done, was purchased at this time at a cost of eleven thousand and seven
hundred and ninety dollars and seventy-nine cents, the advance in price
being allowance for interest during the period elapsing since the original
order to purchase was passed.
December 29th, 1855, Flavel Moseley, an active supporter of the
Public School System of the city, and member of the Board of Education
from 1850 to 1864, established the Moseley Public School Book Fund,
bv a donation of one thousand dollars, the annual interest upon which was
114 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
to be expended in the purchase of text-books for children attending the
Public Schools of the city, whose parents were unable to furnish them
with the necessary books. This fund was increased in the year 1867 by a
bequest of ten thousand dollars, made by Mr. Moseley, at his death, so that
the fund now amounts to eleven thousand dollars.
In April, 1856, Elias Greenebaum was elected school agent, and served
till March, 1857, when he was succeeded by Eugene C. Long.
During the month of February, 1857, Dr. John H. Foster, a member
of the Board of Education, donated to the city one thousand dollars, the
interest on which is to be used by the Board of Education and the Superin-
tendent of Schools in the purchase of gold, silver or bronze medals, or
diplomas, to be awarded to the most deserving scholars in the different
departments of the Public Grammar Schools of the city.
March 23d, 1857, authority was granted by the Common Council to
procure plans for permanent buildings in school districts numbers eight and
nine (Brown and Foster School districts) and in July of the same year
authority was granted to heat the school building in district number eight
(Brown School) with steam. This was the first school building heated by
steam. These buildings were opened about the commencement of
the year 1858. The two story frame building which had been used by the
Brown School since 1855, was removed shortly after the completion of
the new building, to the Wells School lot, corner of Ashland avenue and
Cornelia street, a little over one mile north, and after the erection of the
permanent building on the Wells School lot, in 1866, it was again removed
to the Burr School lot, corner of Ashland and Waubansia avenues, about
a mile distant, remaining in this location till the permanent building was
erected on this lot, in 1873, when it was again removed to the Wicker Park
School lot, on Evergreen avenue, near Robey street, a little over a mile,
where it is still in use, an addition having been made to the building while
on the Burr School lot.
In 1858, William Jones, a member of the Board of Education
from 1840 to 1848, donated to the city one thousand dollars, the interest on
which was to be expended in purchasing text-books, slates, etc., for indigent
children attending the Jones School; and in furnishing books of reference,
maps, globes and such other apparatus as may be desirable in said school.
In June of this year the Common Council authorized, upon the recommen-
dation of the Board of Education, the purchase of the site for the New-
berry School, for forty-five hundred dollars; also the award of contracts
for the erection of the school building in accordance with plans submitted;
and in July, 1858, the purchase of the Wells School lot for two thousand
and one hundred and fifty-two dollars and fifty cents, was authorized.
September I5th, 1858, the Board of Education instructed the com-
mittee on buildings and grounds, to erect a school building on the lot
corner of Wabash avenue and Twelfth street, at a cost not to exceed fifteen
hundred dollars. This building was a two story frame building, one room
on each floor, and remained on this site till the erection of the Haven
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 115
School building, when the lot was sold and the building removed to the
Jones School lot, on the corner of Harrison and Griswold streets, and
joined to another frame building standing on this lot which had been used
as an engine house. These frame buildings escaped destruction at the time
of the great fire, the fire passing over them, but destroying the main
building of the Jones School, standing on Clark street. They were occu-
pied by the police department after the fire, until the erection of their new
buildings on the same site — the frame buildings having been removed to
the Clark street front of the Jones School lot, where they still stand.
During the year 1859, a clerk was first employed in the office of the
Superintendent of Schools, and Samuel Hall served in this capacity till
February, 1860, when he was succeeded by Shepherd Johnston. At
the session of the legislature during the Winter of 1867, provision was
made for the appointment by the Board of a Clerk of the Board of Edu-
cation, and April zd, 1867, Shepherd Johnston was elected to such position
and still serves in that capacity.
During March, i86i,the Board of Education adopted a graded course
of instruction prepared by the Superintendent of Schools, William H.
Wells, which was the beginning of the thoroughly graded system upon
which our Public Schools are based at the present time. This was the first
attempt to embody an extended graded course of instruction, and imme-
diately on its publication itx was extensively copied by other cities, with
various modifications to adapt it to their several needs. October 2 1st, 1861,
authority was granted by the Common Council to award the contract for
the erection of the four room frame building on the Scammon School lot.
In 1862, Walter L. Newberry, for several years a member of the
Board, and President of the Board during the years 1863-4, presented the city
a city bond for one thousand dollars, to be held in trust for the benefit of
the Newberry School, the semi-annual interest thereon to be applied
under the direction of the authorities having charge of the school, first, to
the purchase of text books and stationery for indigent children attending
said school, and any surplus thereafter to be used for the purchase of school
apparatus, such as maps, globes, etc., and books of reference; and should
these wants of said school be at any time supplied from other sources, the
authorities aforesaid are authorized to expend said interest for such purposes
beneficial to said school as they may deem proper. In May, 1862, the
Common Council authorized the erection of branch buildings on the Kin-
zie, Franklin, Washington and Foster School lots.
By an act of the State legislature, approved February i3th, 1863, the
limits of the city were extended so as to take in the South Chicago, Bridge-
port and Holstein Schools. The South Chicago School occupied a small
frame building, located on Douglas avenue, near South Park avenue, which,
upon the opening of the Cottage Grove School building in 1867, was
moved to Twenty-sixth street, near Wentworth avenue, and served as a
branch of the Moseley School till the opening of the Ward School build-
ing in 1875, when the building was sold. The Bridgeport School occupied
ii6 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
the south half of the front part of what is now known as the Archer
Avenue School building. This building was enlarged during the Fall of
1863, by the addition of two rooms on what is now the front of the build-
ing; and was again enlarged by the addition of two rooms in the rear of
the building, during the Summer of 1864. The building occupied by the
Holstein School is now known as the Holstein branch of the Wicker Park
School. The same act also provided that the Board of Education should
consist of fifteen members, to be elected by the Common Council on or
before the first Monday of June next; the remaining provisions of the
section relating to the membership of the Board being the same as in
the Act of 1857.
In June, 1864, William H. Wells tendered his resignation as Superin-
tendent of Schools, to take effect at the close of the school year, and
Josiah L. Pickard, State Superintendent of Schools of Wisconsin, was
elected to fill the vacancy, entering upon his duties in September, 1864.
Jonathan Burr, in his last will and testament, proved in Probate Court,
February 25th, 1869, after making certain specific bequests to relatives and
various public institutions, ordered and directed that all the rest and residue
of his property and estate be converted into money and cash securities, and
be divided into eleven equal parts, one of which parts was to be given
to the city of Chicago, to be* held in trust by said city, the annual income to
be paid over to the Board of Education of said city, to be expended by
them for the use and benefit of the Public Schools of said city, in procuring
books of reference, maps, charts, illustrative -apparatus, and works of taste
and art, at the discretion of said Board, and in case the city fails or neglects
at any time to provide the necessary text-books and slates, for the use of
worthy indigent children attending said Public Schools, then the Board
of Education i$ authorized and directed, at its discretion, to use and expend
the whole or any part of said income for supplying the necessary text-
books and slates. The principal of this fund now amounts to nineteen
thousand and six hundred and seventy-one dollars and nine cents. During
the Summer of 1869, the question of the employment of an assistant to the
Superintendent of Schools was first considered, and there being no pro-
vision for the office of Assistant Superintendent of Schools, at the meeting
of September 28th, 1869, George D. Broomell, Principal of the Haven
School, was elected extra teacher with the salary of a principal, to serve
as assistant to the Superintendent. Mr. Broomell filled the position till
October, 1870, when he resigned and was elected teacher in the High School,
and Francis Hanford, Principal of the Franklin School, was elected assist-
ant to the Superintendent. Mr. Hanford remained in the position till the
fire in October, 1871. During the school year succeeding the fire,
the services of the assistant to the Superintendent were dispensed with, and
Mr. Hanford was assigned to duty as Principal of the Lincoln School. At
the election of officers in July, 1872, Mr. Hanford was again elected, this
time under the title of Assistant Superintendent of Schools, and filled the
position till July, 1875, when he resigned and was elected Principal of
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
117
the North Division High School. August 3ist, 1875, Leslie Lewis
was elected to the position for the balance of the unexpired year, and at the
annual election of officers, September I4th, 1875, Duane Doty, who had
been Superintendent of Schools of the city of Detroit for nine years, was
elected and was succeeded in June, 1877, by Edward C. Delano, who still
holds the position.
The great fire of October 8th and 9th, 1871, destroyed ten school
buildings owned by the city, one in the South Division, and nine in the
North Division, leaving but two school buildings in the North Division —
the Newberry and Lincoln. The following table shows the school build-
ings destroyed, and the loss sustained by the city:
SCHOOL BUILDINGS.
DIVISION.
LOCATION.
VALUE.
Jones
South, . . .
Cor. Clark and Harrison streets
$13 I7O
Kinzie and Branch
North
Cor. Ohio and LaSalle streets
21 3QO
Franklin and Branch. . .
North
Cor. Division and Sedgwick streets
77 IQ?
Ogden
North. . . .
Chestnut between State and Dearborn sts
3Q 67?
Pearson Street Primary
North. . . .
Cor. Pearson and Market streets
16 7 co
Elm Street Primary....
North
Cor. State and Elm streets
16 OsO
LaSalle Street Primary
North
Clark street, near North avenue
T.2 6i;o
North Branch Primary..
North. . . .
Vedder street, near Halsted
32 ooo
Total value. . .
2J.O ?8o
The schools were closed for two weeks after the fire, reopening
October twenty-third, and upon the reopening, inasmuch as the number of
teachers employed was largely in excess of the rooms to which to assign
them, they were divided into four classes, as follows: First — Those who
were burned out and were homeless; Second — Those who had parents or
younger members of the family dependent upon theni for support; Third —
Those who had to depend upon their own earnings for a livelihood; and
Fourth — Those who had friends or relatives who could provide for them
for the present. In assignment to duty, they were set to work as nearly as
possible in the order named above, some remaining out for the entire year;
a large proportion, however, were provided for within the first six months.
June I4th, 1877, J. L. Pickard, who had filled the office of Superin-
tendent of Schools since September, 1864, presented his resignation, which
was accepted June twenty-ninth, and the vacancy was filled September
i3th, 1877, by the election of Duane Doty; and at the same meeting
Edward C. Delano, who had served as Principal of the Normal School
since shortly after its establishment, was elected Assistant Superintendent
of Schools.
In June, 1879, Jacob Rosenberg and Henrietta Rosenfeld, trustees of
a fund left by the late Michael Reese, of San Francisco, California, to be
distributed in various charities such as they may deem proper, donated to
the Board of Education of the city of Chicago the sum of two thousand
dollars, to be known as the Michael Reese Fund, the interest on which
is to be used in the purchase of school books for poor children attending
the Public Schools of this city.
uS
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
The following tabulated statement exhibits the growth of the Public
School system from 1837 to 1879:
FOR YEAR
ENDING
I- S;
<u O
TD
C oo
Total Enrollment
in the Public
Schools.
Average Daily
Membership.
Number of
Teachers.
'c
o t- .
•«'^ ''
1 K.M
J £ ""
•o c a
^ C3 3 Q
l837
2 109
2694
7603
12 O2 1
17404
31 235
52861
58 955
82 996
89 150
136 333
152 470
'74 549
184 499
200473
317
410
808
915
i 051
i 107
1 317
1 517
1 794
i 919
2 287
2 404
3 086
3 SOD
6 826
8 577
10 786
12 803
14 199
16 547
1 6 44,1
17 521
21 188
29 080
24 851
27 260
29 954
34 74°
38 939
40 832
38 035
44 091
47 963
49 121
51 128
53 529
S5 109
56 587
i 224
i 409
i 521
i 795
3688
4464
5 5l6
6 649
7582
8962
10 820
12688
14609
16392
18322
22838
25 755
28 174
24 539
28832
32777
34983
38081
39 495
41 569
43 741
5
7
7
8
9
'3
18
18
18
21
25
29
34
35
42
Si
IOI
123
139
160
187
212
240
265
319
4OI
481
537
572
476
564
640
700
762
73o
797
851
$ i 889 82
2 289 88
2 379 38
2 363 32
2 277 53
6 921 17
9 107 64
10 829 58
'331679
15 626 73
23 365 oo
36 079 oo
4300989
49 612 43
6099446
68 607 97
75 326 1 8
88 in 56
J3i 034 91
162 383 79
227 524 97
278 13306
350 5 15 43
4H 655 7°
444 634 53
378 670 55
430 462 64
592 893 17
552 327 37
588 721 41
450 252 46
490 462 64
529 164 45
$ 2 676 75
3 22599
309997
3 106 22
3 4'3 45
5 635 87
4 248 76
5 79° 82
6 037 97
7 398 97
10 704 04
12 12959
I4 254 72
16 546 13
29 720 oo
45 701 oo
58 686 80
69 630 53
8 1 533 75
86 755 32
92 378 86
"3 3°5 24
17600373
219 198 66
296 672 89
352 ooi 80
446 786 50
=527 741 60
547 461 74
479 444 44
524 702 09
588 643 1 1
662 093 47
710 628 19
551 621 17
579 508 68
630711 17
l84O
1841. .
1842
1847
1844. .
184?
1846
1847..
1848 '.
Io4Q . ,
i8u
18152. .
1853
Dec. 31, 1854
Dec. 31, 1855
Dec. 31, 1856
Feb. i, 1858
Feb. i. 18150. .
Feb. i, 1860
Feb. i, 1861
Dec. 31, 1861
Dec. 31, 1862
Dec. 31, 1863
Aug.3i, 1865
Aug. 31, 1866
Aug. 3 1, 1867
July i, 1868
July i, 1869
July i, 1870
July i, 1871. .
July i, 1872'
July i, 1873. .
uly i. 1874. .
uly i, 1875
July i, 1876. .
July i, 1877. .
Julv i, 1878
July i, 1879
The High Schools of the city are a part of the extensive system of
Public Schools, and are a brilliant feature of its completeness. Among
certain classes there appears to be a disposition to criticise this part of
the Public School system upon the ground that the branches taught in the
common schools are sufficient for all practical purposes, and that schools for
imparting a more advanced education should not be supported by the
public funds. This captiousness comes from an imperfect understanding
of the real utility of education to the welfare of the community, and is a
lingering shadow^f the determined opposition which was manifested a
few years ago to the free school svstem. It is not many years since the
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 119
men who had no children to educate bitterly complained of being compelled
to defray the expenses of educating the children of others, denouncing free
education as an injustice and imposition. In every republic there should
be the most abundant educational facilities, and these once furnished, the
people should be compelled to use them. Truer words were never written
than those which close the report of W. H. Brown, J. E. McGirr, and
G. W. Southworth upon the expediency of establishing a High School,
and which were as follows: "Enlighten the masses and there is compara-
tive safety, for with universal suffrage there must be universal education."
Such provisions are not burdensome to the tax payer. It requires just
about so much money to preserve order and insure prosperity in a com-
munity, and if some of it does not go to the support of schools, it will all
go to the support of a constabulary. Peace and orderly citizenship are the
conditions precedent to prosperity, and these must be the result of education
or a policeman's club. The former is much the more preferable. The
vast majority of our citizens, therefore, entertain a justifiable pride in these
upper schools of our system, and are determined to maintain their existence
and efficiency.
The first thought of establishing a school for advanced scholars seems
to have occurred in 1840. In 1843 the Board of School Inspectors referred
to the matter, saying: "Had we the means for the establishment of a High
School, with two good teachers, into which might be placed a hundred
of the best instructed scholars from the different schools, the present lack of
room would be remedied." In May of the following year Ira Miltimore,
Chairman of the Committee on Schools, again advocated the project. In
1846 the Inspectors in their quarterly report to the Common Council, ex-
pressed the belief that there was a necessity for at least one school where
the ordinary academic studies might be taught. On February yth, 1847,
however, the Committee said: "In reference to a High School, we are of
the opinion that there are insuperable objections to the establishment
of such a school, independent of the inability of the city at the present
time to build one." From this time until November, 1852, nothing more
was heard upon the subject. At this date, however, the Board of Inspec-
tors appointed a committee of three to inquire into the expediency of
recommending to the Common Council a plan for the establishment of a
High School, and this committee urgently recommended its establishment.
The report of this committee was adopted by the Board of Inspectors, and
afterward presented to the Council. On the twenty-third of January,
1855, the Common Council passed an ordinance establishing a High
School. On the nineteenth of the month following, the Common Council
directed the Committee on Schools to prepare plans and specifications for
a building, with an estimate of cost. The building was commenced during
the year, and was completed by the Fall of 1856. The school was organ-
ized October 8th, 1856, with C. A. Dupee as Principal, a position whirh
he held until 1860, when he was succeeded by George Howland. This
school was what was known as the Central High School. In 1875 Division
I2O
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
High Schools were established, one in each Division of the city, with a two
years' course. The regular course being four years, the arrangement under
this system, was to take two years in the Division Schools and the other
two in the Central School. The Normal Department was organized as
an independent school in 1871, and so continued until 1876, when it was
again made a department of the High School.'
The following is an alphabetical list of the teachers of the Central
High School from its organization:
PRINCIPALS:
Charles A. Dupee,
October, 1856, to July, 1860.
George Rowland,
September, 1860, to July, 1880.
Geo. E. Adams,
Charles Ansorge,
Jemima F. Austin,
Bradford Y. Averill,
William T. Belfield,
Grace Bibb,
Orlando Blackman,
Norton W. Boomer,
Edward M. Booth,
Emily S. Bouton,
Geo. D. Broomell,
Anna Byrne,
Albion Cate,
Geo. C. Clarke,
Alexander Coignard,
Helen D. Compton,
Emilie H. Cook,
Sophia L. Cornienti,
Helen Culver,
Albert H. Currier,
Geo. R. D'Andilly,
Carrie A. de Clercq,
Marc Delafontaine,
Edward C. Delano,
ASSISTANTS:
Gustav Demars,
James R. Dewey,
Sarah J. Ellithorpe,
Oscar Faulhaber,
N.Ella Flagg,
Carol Gaytes,
Susan J. Grace,
Gussie E. Grant,
Raphael Guthman,
Hermann Hanstein,
J. O. Hudnutt,
Camilla Leach,
Mary W. Lewis,
Marion L. W. McClintock,
J. G. R. McElroy,
Marion G. Meatyard,
Samuel F. Miller,
Pauline Misch,
Henry F. Munroe, •
Ira Moore,
Mary Noble,
Charles G. G. Paine,
Maria A. Parry,
Selim H. Peabody,
Lavinia C. Perkins,
Joseph C. Pickard,
Edward C. Porter,
Leander H. Potter,
Pauline M. Reed,
Albert R. Sabin,
Jeremiah Slocum,
Frances A. Smallwood,
Herman W. Snow,
Harriet A. Stowell,
S. Grace Thompson,
Samuel Thurber,
Annie E. Trimingham,
Gertrude Van Patten,
A- Henry Vanzwoll,
Sarah A. E. Walton,
Mida D. Warne,
Caroline T. Warner,
Geo. P. Welles,
Oliver S. Westcott,
Samuel Willard,
Edward M. Williams,
Caroline S. A. Wygant.
The North Division High School was organized in September, 1875,
in the Sheldon School building. Francis Hanford, at that time Assistant
Superintendent of Schools, was elected Principal, Anna M. Byrne,
assistant, and Sophia Cornienti, teacher of German. Mr. Hanford was
Principal of this school until August in the following year, when he was
shot and killed in his door yard by Alexander Sullivan. Sullivan called
upon Hanford for an explanation of some matter in which both parties
were alleged to be interested, when a serious dispute arose between them,
the ending of which was the killing of Hanford. Sullivan was brought
to trial upon an indictment for murder, and was acquitted.
The following named teachers have been connected with the school;
PRINCIPALS:
Francis Hanford,
September, 1875, to August, 1876.
Henry H. Belfield,
September, 1876, to date.
Anna M. Byrne,
Sophia Cornienti,
Lizzie N. Cutter,
Eva C. Durbin,
ASSISTANTS:
James W. Larimore,
Caroline H. Merrick,
Thomas O'Mahony,
Mathilde Smith,
Lora A. Stimpson,
Emma A. Stowell,
Ann E. Winchell.
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 121
The South Division High School was organized in September, 1875,
under the principalship of Jeremiah Slocum. The following teachers
have been connected with the school :
PRINCIPAL:
Jeremiah Slocum.
ASSISTANTS:
Wm. T. Belfield, Emilie H. Cook, Maria J. Whipple,
James Sullivan, Eliza R. Sunderland, Eva C. Durbin,
Henry F. Munroe, Harriet A. Stowell, Sophia L. Cornienti.
Wm. M. Payne, Alfred Kirk,
The West Division High School was opened for the reception of
pupils September, 1875, in charge of Ira S. Baker. The school is now
located at the corner of Monroe and Morgan streets.
The following are the names of the present and former teachers of
the school:
PRINCIPALS:
Ira S. Baker, George P. Welles,
September, 1875, to July, 1880. Elected July, 1880.
ASSISTANTS:
Joseph Y. Bergen, Jr. Susan J.Grace, John K. Merrill,
William T. Belfield, Fanny Hannan, Henry F. Munroe,
Carrie A. de Clercq, Mathilde Hessler, James Sullivan,
J. Hamilton Farrar, David F. Hicks, Caroline T. Warner,
Franklin P. Fisk, Gertrude V. Lord, Oliver S. Westcott.
Emma A. Gosau, Ira S. Baker,
The Central High School was abolished in July, 1880, and the Board
at the same time ordered that henceforth there should be the full course of
four years taught in each Division School. George Howland was at this
date elected Superintendent of Schools.
122
GEORGE ROWLAND.
It is not the most demonstrative life that leaves the deepest impress
upon society. The hand that holds the conqueror's sword, while it, may
be kissed by the worshiping multitude, is not the hand that carves out a
prosperous nation's existence. The foundation and perpetuity of govern-
ment, especially of republican government, is laid where there is, no clash
of arms or smoke of battle. The statesman may charm the world with the
intricacies and brilliancy of his diplomacy, or he may thrill it with burn-
ing eloquence; wreathed in laurels the military chieftain may come from
his battle fields amidst the torrent of a people's plaudits; the merchant,
and the manufacturer, and the delver in the mines have the right to claim
conspicuous position among those who are developing and maturing the
beauties and wealth of a nation. But behind them all is an unostentatious
power which is greater than they — the source of their own efficiency and of
their vital support. Without it Bismarck and his magnificent nation
would be but shadows of their present greatness; England, now grand in
intellect and commanding in civilization, would still be the lingering night
of barbarism; the American I'epublic, representative of the highest type
of progress, and potent in influence wherever civilization has made its
name familiar, would not only not exist, but this fair and fertile territory,
the plains and the prairies, the lakes and the rivers, the mountains and the
vales which make as lovely a picture as nature ever painted, would be
the home of savage life and of unappreciative savage intellect, bending
their energies to the hunt, relentless and useless warfare, and the senseless
worship of imaginary gods.
That magic power which has absorbed the night in the glories of the
morning; that has drawn a line of separation between man and the brute;
that has created government and sustains it, and that has built, adorned
and prospered our beautiful Chicago, is the school house. Within its
walls can be found the architect of the world's prosperity and fame,
patiently molding the character and intellect of the future statesmen,
orators, warriors, poets and philosophers of the nation. With the excep-
tion of the world's mothers, no class of human beings stamp themselves
so indelibly and favorably upon government, society and commerce as do
those who are educating our youth. Long after their most sacred mission
is ended, and they have been gathered with the fathers, they live on in
hundreds and thousands of active lives, and their influence is being felt
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS, 123
in every circle in which glows the intelligence of human intellect. Indeed
their influence will never cease to be felt. Nations may rise and nations
may crumble; generation after generation may march in solemn procession
through the world into eternity; ages may come and ages may go;
Pompeiis may be buried and Chicagos may be forgotten, but amidst all
the rust and disfigurement and desolation which time may bequeath in its
flight, the footprints of the instructor of our youth will ever be discerned
in the sands, and the picture of our school houses upon human character
will always retain its freshness and prominence.
George Rowland, the present Superintendent of Schools, has long
been identified with the educational interests of Chicago, and as teacher
and principal of the High School, has sent thousands of our young men
and women out into the world, fully prepared to assume and discharge
the duties and responsibilities of successful life. In the learned professions,
in our counting-rooms and offices, in official position, and in every avoca-
tion requiring character and developed mind, his pupils are found honoring
themselves and conspicuously bearing evidence of his efficiency as an
instructor and his usefulness as a citizen. Grand, indeed, has been the part
which he has enacted in developing the mind, the real foundation of
Chicago; and the proudest marble monument that will ever stand to
commemorate the life of our noblest statesman or most valiant soldier, will
be less durable than that on which the name of this modest man has been
stamped by his quiet fidelity to duty.
Mr. Rowland is a native of Conway, Franklin county, Massachusetts,
and is the son of William Avery Howland and Hannah Morton. His
parents were New England people, and possessed of those sturdy virtues
which are characteristic of the natives of that section of our country.
Young Howland spent his boyhood upon his father's farm, dividing his
time between assisting his father and attending the district school. In
course of time he entered Wollaston Seminary, East Hampton, under the
principalship of Luther Wright, and afterward Amherst College, from
which he graduated in 1850. During his collegiate course he taught
school whenever opportunity was afforded by vacation, and thus largely
supported himself while in college.
Two years after receiving his degree of Bachelor of Arts, he returned
to Amherst, and was connected with the college for five years, first as
tutor and then as instructor in Latin and French. In December, 1857, ^e
arrived in Chicago, and in the following January was elected a teacher in
the High School, which position he filled until July, 1860, when he was
elected Principal. In the discharge of the responsible duties of the
principalship of this highest Chicago school, he showed such distinguished
fitness for the direction of our educational interests, that in July, 1880, the
Board of Education elected him to the superintendency of schools, which
position he now fills to the complete satisfaction of the Board and of the
public. The only other public office which Mr. Howland occupies is 3
trusteeship of Amherst College. Some years ago an arrangement was
124 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS,
made by which the Alumni of the College were to elect a portion of the
trustees, and in accordance with this, Mr. Rowland was elected a trustee
in 1879.
Few lives among us have been more consecrated to duty and so fertile
of good results as the one we have been sketching. Modest in its exhibi-
tions, actuated by a profound regard for principle, and symmetrical in its-
development, the universal esteem entertained for Mr. Rowland is a
legitimate result of natural causes.
I25
JAMES WARD.
•
The world always holds in reserve the necessary intellect and energy to
meet extraordinary emergencies. In perilous times there is always a hand
to clasp the wheel of the drifting ship. If government succumbs to an-
archy, some mind appears to illumine the pathway to the establishment of
order; if great battles are to be fought, the general who can inspire cour-
age and lead to victory is not long undiscovered; if evils cry for reform,
the agitator and reformer soon rise to the surface, and when civilization
demands a representative upon the frontier, and a hand to carry her torch
into the darkness, she has not long to wait for a response. Hidden in the
great surging mass of humanity is always the material for the protection
of the world's best interests, and to insure the world's steady advancement.
Washingtons are at hand when a nation is to be created; Lincolns are
available when a nation is to be saved ; Grants are waiting for the sum-
mons to i-escue imperiled principles and institutions upon the battle field;
and Kinzies, and Ogdens, and Carpenters, and Wards are listening amidst
the quiet and charms of civilization for the appeal of the frontier for energy,
intellect, integrity and enterprise to build cities upon the prairies and the
marshes. The heroism which answers such an appeal, when it is heard,
is not inferior to that which is shown amidst the smoke of a nation's bat-
tles, and is possible because nature contains the forces which she requires
for her own development and adornment. The men who came upon this
site thirty, forty and fifty years ago, and who have contributed to the crea-
tion of this elegant city, are entitled to as much credit for courage, and to
as beautiful a wreath of fame from the nation as any of her warriors who
have fought her battles; and of these frontier heroes and builders of cities
the subject of our sketch is a prominent representative.
James Ward was born near Antrim, in the North of Ireland, August
ist, 1814, and was the son of Moses Ward and Sarah A. McQueston.
When twenty years of age he left home, and came to America, settling at
Auburn, New York, where he managed a farm and stone quarry until
1841, when he decided to emigrate to the West. Starting from Auburn
in this year, he intended to go to Dubuque, Iowa, and settle upon a farm;
but upon arriving in Chicago, the sound judgment for which he is now
noted, readily detected the elements of greatness which the infant city
possessed, and he decided to remain. Purchasing a house which stood
upon leased ground — now occupied by Heath and Milligan's store, and
126 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
which then rented for twenty dollars a year — he installed his family in
their new home, which he began to embellish. The lot was like the pub-
lic square — which had its old log jail in the northwest corner and the
unimposing wooden Court House in the center — without fence or adorn-
ment. Indeed there was but little encouragement to adorn, for the sur-
roundings were of the rudest description. The street in front of the house
was at times in an impassable condition, and it was not uncommon for Mr.
Ward to lend a helping hand to a farmer whose team had been mired,
necessitating an unloading 'of the grain from the wagon. But he saw
something of the future whose brilliancy he has lived to enjoy, and was
not discouraged. To surround his wife, also, with all the comfort and
beauty which, under the circumstances, were possible, was an object worthy
the endeavors of a manly man. Accordingly he fenced the lot, and planted
as beautiful a flower garden as his land would admit of; and in so doing
indicated the gentleness of heart and nobility of soul which he possesses
in an exalted degree. The blooming flowers and taste displayed, attracted
the attention of the lovers of the beautiful, and among them was Philo
Carpenter, who, stopping to inhale the perfume of the garden, made the
acquaintance of Mr. Ward, and in the course of conversation, ascertained
that this home, charming as it then seemed to be, was not what our subject
desired. He-expressed a wish -for a lot large enough for a good house,
barn, well, cistern and garden. Mr. Carpenter suggesting that he could
furnish such a lot "a little ways out of town," it was arranged to ride out
and view it at once. They rode through Randolph street. Between Canal
and Halsted streets there were no houses or fences, and the only sign of
business or life between the river and Halsted street was a lumber yard
on the northwest corner of Randolph and Canal streets. At Halsted street
there was a small house occupied by Mr. Wright, who was -a gardener
and supplied a portion of the inhabitants in town with vegetables. Pro-
ceeding as far as Sangamon street, they came to a block on the south-
east corner of that street and Randolph, which was planted with corn,
and in this block — thirty-nine, in Carpenter's Addition to Chicago — was
the lot which Mr. Carpenter proposed to sell to Mr. Ward. One-third
of this block was then purchased by Mr. Ward, and is still owned by
him.
When Mr. Ward first arrived in Chicago he entered upon the business
of buying and selling grain, and was among the first of our pork packers.
Selling this business, in the Spring of 1842 — about the time of his pur-
chase of the Carpenter property — he began to direct his attention to dealing
in real estate, and in company with a brother, Hugh Ward, to the business
of building. He first built him a residence upon the property which he
purchased of Mr. Carpenter, and this was the fourth house erected upon
Carpenter's Addition. This building is still standing, and is in such
excellent condition that it rents for about forty-five dollars per month. As
evidence of the clear judgment of the man, the fact should be noticed,
that when he purchased this valuable property, "so far out of town," he
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 127
was ridiculed by those who thought themselves possessed of greater wis-
dom. Time has shown who was the wisest.
Mr. Ward and his brother, in the capacity of master builders, began
active business immediately after the erection of the former's house, and
some of the most substantial buildings between Halsted street and the
river were erected by them. At the expiration of eight years in business
with our subject, Hugh died, and the business of building was discontinued
by the survivor. Hugh left a son — who bears his father's name — five
years old, of whom our subject became the guardian. The property to
which the heir of the deceased brother was entitled at the death of his
father, was appraised at thirty thousand dollars. When the son arrived
at his majority — sixteen years after — the estate was worth over a hundred
thousand dollars — an evidence both of judicious management and of the
progress of Chicago.
Mr. Ward has, however, been prominently identified with the growth
of Chicago in even a more important capacity than that of an enterpris-
ing private citizen. For years he has been identified with the public
schools. In 1845 ^e was appointed a member of the Board of Education,
but the necessities of his private business impelled him to decline the
honor. In 1857, however, he consented to serve in that capacity, and was a
member of the board from that date until 1863, when he retired, and was
appointed as the Building and Supply Agent, which position he still holds.
As a mark of esteem for his devotion to the interests of Chicago, and
especially to her educational system, one of the schools bears his name.
Mr. Ward has been three times married. His first wife was Mary
E. Hickson, of Auburn, New York. She died in Chicago in 1855. He
next married Orchestra Pyre, of Syracuse, New York, who lived only
about two years after the marriage. His present wife is Mary E. Smith,
whom he mafried at Chicago. He has nine children — Sarah Agnes and
Marietta, daughters of his first wife; Frank Carpenter, Albert James,
Anna Rebecca, Charles Stewart, Walter Moses, Ella C. and James Am-
berg, whose mother is the present Mrs. Ward.
Little can be added to this record of a life which has developed so
grandly, and which is so intimately connected with the growth of Chicago,
especially with her advancement in education. There is not a school
house in Chicago, of whose construction Mr. Ward has not had the over-
sight, and the beauty and convenience of these temples of education is all
the monument that a man could wish or deserves to commemorate his
name; and, yet, as a friend who has enjoyed his companionship and hos-
pitalities, listened to his description of early Chicago, and his enthusiasm
for her future, heard his kindly voice, and observed his sympathetic nature
and charitable disposition, we cannot resist the temptation of losing sight
of what he has accomplished, and looking at the man himself. History
will exalt his deeds — perhaps we, who know him, may be pardoned for
exalting him above his deeds.
128
H. CLARENCE EDDY.
H. Clarence Eddy was born in Greenfield, Massachusetts, June 23d,
1851, and is the son of George S. Eddy and Silence Cheney. The
father of our subject has been a prominent citizen and merchant of this
beautiful old Massachusetts town for many years, and the mother belongs
to a family which is specially noted for its natural musical endowments.
While yet a mere child the son gave evidence of having inherited the
talent of his mother's family, by his extraordinary fondness for music,
and his improvement of every opportunity to gratify the ruling passion
of his life and to become proficient in musical art. Indeed, so unusual
was his musical gift, and so constant was his application to the compre-
hension of the details of musical science, that at the early age of fourteen
years he commanded a salaried position as church organist, and began
teaching when scarcely sixteen.
Until he was eleven years of age he had been led only by his own
artistic nature; but now it became necessary to provide him a competent
teacher, and he began the study of the piano under the instruction of
Laura J. Billings. Two years later he took his first lessons on the organ,
J. Gilbert Wilson — at the time organist of the St. James Episcopal Church
at Greenfield — being his teacher. When sixteen years of age he went
to Hartford, Connecticut, where for one year he studied the organ and
harmony under Dudley Buck. While here he accepted an engagement
as organist in Bethany Church — Reverend Dr. Lord, pastor — at Mont-
pelier, Vermont, where he remained two years and a half, teaching music
continually, and during the last year and a half teaching the pianoforte
in Goddard Seminary, Barre, Vermont, five miles distant from Mont-
pelier. A very great portion of the time that he remained at the capital
of the Green Mountain State, he gave more than sixty lessons a week.
After considering carefully the advantages offered by the German
cities, he finally decided to go to Berlin, where, aside from instruction
at the hands of the celebrated masters he could enjoy almost unlimited
opportunities, afforded by the German capital, for hearing the greatest
musical works.
The tasks which he accomplished during this time were simply
enormous. Thoroughly devoted to his chosen profession, he studied with
unremitting diligence, working sometimes as many as fifteen hours a day
at piano and organ together, A. Loeschhorn, whose studies are celebrated
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
129
all over the world, being his teacher of the former, and the celebrated August
Haupt, with whom he also studied harmony, counterpoint, fugue and
musical composition, being his teacher of the latter.
During the first six months of the two and a half years he spent in
Berlin, he played every day the Six Organ Sonatas of Bach, before
taking up his appointed tasks. This exercised no small influence upon
him, in permeating his whole being with the subtle spirit of polyphonic
structure, as displayed so marvelously in the sublime creations of Bach.
His continuous application could not fail to produce its legitimate results —
an enormous technique — and by means of constant piano practice, and the
study of the greatest piano works, under Professor Loeschhorn, he
became a fine pianist, and guarded against the stiffening of the fingers,
so often met with among those who devote themselves exclusively to the
organ. By adopting this course, he succeeded in obtaining both a fine
piano and organ technique.
Professor Haupt— who, when young, could play every important
organ work of Bach from memory— devoted all the energies of his mind
to the task of instructing the pupil of whom he was so proud, and whom
he loved as his own son, and when, just before Mr. Eddy's departure, the
master received the commands of the Emperor of Germany, whose
organist he was, to take part in a concert given in the "Garnison Church,"
under the Imperial patronage, he excused himself by saying: "I will
send a pupil of mine who will do even better than I can." High praise,
indeed, but it showed the old master's estimate of his pupil. So, in due
time, Mi*. Eddy played at this concert, performing before the Emperor,
Empress, Crown Prince and Princess, and many of the German nobility,
Bach's great Five-Part Fantasie in C minor, and Merkel's celebrated
Sonata in G minor, winning recognition from both the musicians and
people of Berlin, and receiving the most flattering recommendations from
the press of that city.
Soon after, he undertook a tour through the German Empire, Austria
and Switzerland, playing all the principal organs, among them the famous
old instrument at Freiborg, and receiving the most flattering attentions
from the celebrated men with whom he came in contact, such as Franz
Liszt, Gustav Merkel, A. G. Ritter, E. F. Richter and others.
Returning to Berlin in triumph, he bade his masters, Haupt and
Loeschhorn, an affectionate farewell, and set out on his journey home,
passing through Holland, Belgium, France and England, and playing
the splendid organs in St. Paul's Cathedral and the Royal Albert Hall,
in London, the latter being the largest instrument in the world.
On his return to America, he received a call to become organist of
the First Congregational Church, in Chicago — Reverend Dr. Goodwin's —
at a salary of two thousand dollars. Here, in the Winter of 1875-6, he
gave his first series of organ recitals, numbering twenty-five, at which
were presented the greatest works ever written for the organ.
In 1877 he became General Director of the Hershey School of
130
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
Musical Art, in Chicago, founded by Mrs. Sara B. Hershey, and which
has already made good its position as one of the foremost Musical Col-
leges of the country. To this school he has given his best energies, and
has met with the greatest success in training up young musicians who
seem to become imbued with the same enthusiastic love for the art, and
willingness to labor for it, which is so characteristic of himself.
At the opening of the beautiful Hershey Music Hall, in connection
with the school, he projected a series of one hundred organ recitals — one
to be given every week, and without the repetition of a single number —
upon the splendid new three-manual concert-organ, built by Johnson &
Son. The programme of these recitals, when completed, included all
the important organ works of every age and author. This design, so vast
in its conception, was carried out in strict conformity to the original inten-
tion, the last recital of the series being given on June 23d, 1879.
For such an undertaking is required, not only a magnificent technique,
capable of executing everything, but also enormous powers of reading
and memory, to enable him to thoroughly prepare a completely new
programme every week. To cope with all the difficulties presented by
this stupendous problem, and at the same time instruct so many pupils,
necessitated a most exceptional ability in every direction. Such a thing
has never been accomplished by any organist, nor has it been, probably,
ever undertaken.
There have been over three hundred concerts given under the
auspices of the Hershey School of Musical Art since its establishment in
January, 1877; and it can in truth be said thai there are more real advan-
tages offered in this than in any other similar institution in America; and
no other music school in the world can boast of so large and magnificent
an organ as the one contained in Hershey Music Hall, which is the prop-
erty of the school.
In Mr. Eddy we have an organist whose abilities are equaled by
few, and probably excelled by none. For him difficulties seem to exist
no longer; his pedal-playing is as smooth and even as if the passages
were executed by the fingers upon the manual, but everything is done
with such astonishing ease that a feeling of restfulness settles down upon
the hearer, enabling him to thoroughly enjoy every note, without one
thought of the mechanical difficulties presented by the work. Yet this
marvelous technique is never devoted to mere purposes of display, but
only used as a means to an end — the proper interpretation of the music —
and he seems to be fully deserving of the title so often bestowed upon
him — "greatest of America's organists."
Aside from his teaching and playing, he can, of course, find com-
paratively little time to devote to writing. Yet his technique of composition
is very great; he writes with the utmost ease; his compositions are
remarkable for their clearness and elegance, and the great scholarship
displayed in working out the minutest details. Among his compositions,
are Canons, Choral Variations, Preludes and Fugues for the organ, as
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 131
well as a number of church works, which have been received by critics
and the public with many commendations, and are very chaste and classical
in their style and conception.
In odd hours, too, he has found time to translate and edit Haupt's
"Theory of Counterpoint and Fugue," which is already extensively used
in this country.
Louis Thiele, the celebrated organist, left behind him, at his death,
a newly-finished manuscript — "Theme and Variations in C." It is prob-
ably, in many respects, the most difficult organ composition in existence.
Haupt had placed it in his own repertoire, and called it the "touch-stone"
of his technique. He used it as a test of his own ability, for if he could
play it, he knew that he had lost nothing of his own wonderful skill.
This enormously difficult work Mr. Eddy mastered while in Germany,
after a month's careful study, and had the great pleasure of playing it to
his venerable teacher, who, though he had often played it to others, had
never heard it except when so doing, having never, hitherto, found any
one who could play it to him.
At the present time Mr. Eddy is organist of the First Presbyterian
Church, Musical Director of the Philharmonic Vocal Society of Chi-
cago, organist of Hershey Music Hall, and General Director of Hershey
School of Musical Art.
At Chicago, July ist, 1879, Mr. Eddy was married to Mrs. Sara
Hershey, the founder of the school which bears ner name, and a lady of
great musical attainments and superior worth.
Such success as that of which the life we have been sketching is the
embodiment, is very unusual even with the most gifted, and its explana-
tion will be found in the severe training of rare natural abilities and
industrious devotion to a chosen profession. Only thirty years of age,
H. Clarence Eddy is regarded the foremost organist of America, and
with his habits of industry, his physical and mental endurance, his high
musical attainments, and his great musical talent, it is impossible to con-
jecture the limit of achievement and fame which await him in the
future, should his health and life be spared.
HENRY L. SLAYTON.
Henry L. Slayton, the originator, proprietor and manager of the only
prominent Western Lyceum Bureau, is possessed of that keen business
ability, sound judgment and spirit of enterprise, to which Chicago is so
accustomed and so much indebted. In his chosen field of labor he was
the pioneer, and from a small beginning and against obstacles of a dis-
couraging character, his tact, energy and perseverance have evolved a
business which is co-extensive with the limits of the country, and have
made his name familiar among the intelligent portion of the whole nation.
Gifted by nature with the sturdy qualities of mind and heart which appear
to be prominently characteristic of those who come from New England,
his success has been the legitimate result of a well balanced organization,
integrity of character and singleness of purpose. Having enjoyed both a
military and legal education and practice, his training was of that method-
ical character, which has been of signal benefit to him in conducting an
enterprise which is the very embodiment of systematic arrangement and
management. Thus peculiarly fitted for an undertaking of a complicated
and delicate nature, the success of the Slayton Lyceum Bureau has been
unmistakable, and the more brilliant because of the many failures of simi-
lar enterprises in the West, during the years that it has been steadily
extending its influence.
Henry L. Slayton was born at Woodstock, in the State of Vermont,
May 29th, 1841, and is the eldest of four children, three of whom are still
living. His father, Stephen D. Slayton, who is still living at Lebanon,
New Hampshire, whither he removed with his family when Henry was
four years old, is a man of rare intelligence, and for twenty years was the
leading manufacturer of edge tools in New England. His mother, whose
maiden name was Lucy Maria Kendall, was one of those charming women
whose lives are devoted to the happiness of those about them. She died
in 1879, mourned by a large circle of friends to whom her superior virtues
had endeared her.
The boyhood of young Slayton was passed in New Hampshire, and
during a very large portion of it he was in the excellent schools of which
New England is justly proud. After attending the District and High
Schools at Lebanon, he entered the Kimball Union Academy — at that
time the leading institution of its class in New England — and pursued a
three years' course. Having thus prepared himself for college, his inten-
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 133
tion was to enter upon a regular collegiate course, but the breaking out
of the war of 1861, led him to modify his plans. The assault upon the
life of his government awakened his patriotism to a degree of enthusiasm
that his only thought was, how best he could prepare himself for the
most efficient service for his country. Inheriting, too, a sympathy for
those in bonds, his hope to see the institution of human slavery crushed in
the conflict, aroused his humanity to supplement the motives of patriotism.
With such feelings, and for the accomplishment of the highest purposes,
he entered Norwich University to pursue a special military course of study.
With his aptness to learn he readily became a most proficient master of
military tactics, and upon leaving the university was employed by the
State of New Hampshire to organize and drill her volunteers. Fulfilling
his contract with the State he went to Washington as an applicant for a
commission in the army, and was compelled to submit to the thorough
and exhaustive examination which so many older and more experienced
men failed in those days to pass. Young Slayton, however, went through
it victoriously, and having received his commission as first lieutenant, was
assigned to duty in the Second United States Colored Infantry, a regiment
which was officered by some of the finest military talent in the service,
and which won the reputation of being the best drilled regiment in the
entire army. He was in active service about two years and a half, received
promotion to a captaincy in the meantime, and was a member of a military
commission and court martial, with headquarters at Tallahassee, Tortugas
and Key West, Florida. At the close of the war he was tendered a com-
mission as captain in the regular army, which honor he declined. In the
Fall of 1866 Mr. Slayton entered the Law School of the Albany Univer-
sity, from which he graduated in 1867 with the degree of Bachelor
of Laws. In the Autumn of the same year he came to Chicago and
entered the law office of Tyler and Hibbard, where he remained for six
months, at the expiration of which time he commenced active practice, in
which he continued until after the great fire. While in Albany he spent
much of his spare time in the extensive State Law Library, reading criminal
law, and examining the reports and decisions in capital cases. The result
of these investigations was to make him a strong opponent of capital
punishment, and many of the articles which have come from his pen upon
the subject, have been largely copied in both Eastern and Western
journals. Soon after the fire of 1871 he went to Texas, having accepted
from the Governor an appointment as Superintendent of Schools for
several counties. He entered upon this work with his usual energy and
discretion, riding over six thousand miles on horseback while in the dis-
charge of his duty, and establishing and maintaining a fine system of
schools. Besides these duties lie also successfully managed and edited a
newspaper. His health failing, however, he returned to New Hampshire.
In March, 1873, Mr. Slayton was married at Philadelphia, Pennsyl-
vania, to Mina E. Gregory, daughter of John Gregory, of Northfield,
Vermont. At the time of her marriage Miss Gregory was studying elo-
134 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
cution with the celebrated Murdock, and laying the foundation for the
fame which, as Mina G. Slayton, she has since achieved as a dramatic
reader. In the Fall of 1873 Mr. Slayton returned to Chicago with his
accomplished wife, and at once set about the establishment of the Slayton
Lyceum Bureau. During the following Winter Mrs. Slayton gave
twenty-five readings to large and appreciative audiences in Chicago
alone. But even that and all the other work which the Bureau then
did was insignificant as compared to its present operations, with its
large list of the best talent in the world, its numerous employees at the
headquarters in the Central Music Hall, and its outside managers, furnish-
ing and directing the movements of lecturers, readers, singers, and dramatic
and concert troupes in all parts of the continent. Annually the Bureau
issues a large and profusely illustrated magazine, devoted to the interests •
of lecturers, readers actors and musicians, and for the benefit of lyceums
and associations, as well as for general reading. It is the only magazine
of the kind published in the country.
As a manager Mr. Slayton is courageous but not reckless; enterpris-
ing in the truest sense, but sufficiently conservative to avoid the dangers
which others often encounter. Yet young, and with a large and valuable
experience, it is reasonable to expect that the Slayton Lyceum Bureau will
under his management become a greater honor to Chicago -than even it
now is.
'35
CHAPTER X.
PUBLIC PARKS.
Chicago has the grandest system of public parks and boulevards in
process of development of any city in the world, and thousands of its own
citizens are utterly ignorant of the extent of the colossal enterprise which
has been entered upon in this attempt to beautify the metropolis and to
add to the comfort of its inhabitants. All know the names and locations
of the great parks and most of the smaller, but of the Park System
many know nothing; and yet it is so grand and comprehensive that large
as the city is in population and territorial extent, it is far in advance of the
supposed natural requirements or expectations of the community. But
Chicago almost always has proceeded in her course of maturing with an
implicit, confidence in the greatness of her future, and with the commend-
able purpose of building a. beautiful city for the inheritance of posterity.
On every hand are the evidences that Chicago is being built and adorned
for those who shall come after the busy, tireless, and public-spirited fathers
and grandfathers who are now upon its thronged streets, in its active com-
merce, and planting trees and flowers upon its highways and blossoming
public grounds. The present generation might have imitated the folly of
the earlier generations of older cities, building for itself alone, and leaving
its successors to chafe in narrow streets, contracted buildings and apologies
for parks; it might have been content with a Boston Common in the
center 6*f each of its extensive Divisions, and taught the children that one
of the most solemn duties of all the future, was to regard these limited
spaces devoted to nature and art, with such holy reverence that they would
be satisfied with their inadequacy to supply the soul's longings for more
extensive beauty, and frown upon all attempts to supersede them with
greater.
But Chicago has been laboring for 1980 as well as for the convenience
and pleasure of 1880. She has been planting trees, marking out flower-
beds and constructing royal drives, that millrons yet unborn will glory in
as one of the chief sources of pride which they entertain for the city of
their birth or adoption. Not very many years hence and the most captious
will not dare or wish to say that the parks of Chicago, with their con-
necting boulevards, are in advance of the growth of the city ; as from one
park to another, amidst a sea of fragrance and a paradise of bloom, the
humblest or most royal equipage rolls with its admiring occupants, not a
voice will be lifted in censure of what has been done to inaugurate the
1^6 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
Park System, but gleeful hearts will throb with gratitude to the faithful
progenitors and guardians of the city's loveliest characteristic.
In a moral point of view the hundreds of thousands of dollars which
have been spent upon the public parks, is worth in the proportion of
thousands to hundreds to the city. Fresh air and the gentle laughing wel-
come of the flowers and trees, calms many a spirit which is nursing
vengeance against the individual or society. It is not sentiment, but a fact,
that a flower will often do more than a policeman's club. If the people
who are huddled together in the tenement houses of this city, left to live
t alone, often in squalor, and as often left to die alone, and to be buried with-
out even a minister coming to the house, could be brought into communion
with nature as she presents herself upon our parks, less crime would be
committed, and more courage would be generated to withstand the cold
heartlessness of the world. Every tree and every flower that a city grows
is a moral power which to some extent preserves its peace, and insures
safety to life and property. Money is not, therefore, thrown away upon
parks, in whatever light they may be viewed. They are an adornment;
they are a luxury; they are a pulpit and a police.
Plain as this is to every observant mind, however, the Park System in
Chicago has found opponents, who have fought its development to the
extent of legal means, and, of course, to the extent of their influence.
But it has gone steadily along until hundreds of acres have been covered
with tastefully pathed verdure and artistically arranged lakes and other
adornments. The city is still the Garden City, but her gardens now are
those which culture and capital have made her elegant parks. If the next
forty years shall do what the last have done, Chicago will approach the
splendors of Babylon in the days of swinging gardens and artistic triumphs.
The report of the Commissioners of Lincoln Park, for 1877, contains
a history of the enterprise, and as none better could be written, it is here
reproduced, with but few alterations or additions:
The Board of Commissioners of Lincoln Park was created by an Act of
the General Assembly of the State of Illinois, approved February 8th,
1869, and Acts supplementary and amendatory thereto. In the original
Act, E. B. McCagg, J. B. Turner, Joseph Stockton, Jacob Rehm, and
Andrew Nelson were named as the first Board of Commissioners. They
met March i6th, 1869, and organized by the election of E. B. McCagg as
President. The time of the Board for the first year was mainly devoted
to a topographical study of the territory to be embraced within the park,
preparing plans for future improvement, and starting the machinery which
had been devised by the law; the first improvement of note that was
ordered by the Board, was the construction of the lake shore drive front-
ing the park, and which was partially completed and opened to the public
during their administration.
By an Act of the General Assembly, approved June i6th, 1871, pro-
vision was made for the appointment of a new Board of Commissioners,
a question having been raised as to the power of the legislature to name
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 137
the Commissioners in the law. In November, 1871, the Governor appointed
as such Commissioners, Samuel M. Nickerson, Joseph Stockton, Belden
F. Culver, William H. Bradley and Francis H. Kales, to succeed the
Board which had been named in the original law. The first meeting of
the new Board was held November 28th, 1871, and organized by the elec-
tion of B. F. Culver as President. Under the administration of this Board*
proceedings were instituted for acquiring title to the various tracts of land
embraced within the limits of the park. In February, 1874, Commission-
ers Nickerson, Bradley and Kales resigned, and the Governor appointed as
their successors, F. H. Winston, A. C. Hesing, and Jacob Rehm. At the
meeting of the Board, February 24th,, 1874, B. F. Culver resigned as
President, and F. H. Winston was elected as President of the Board.
During the term of this Board, the condemnation proceedings were
completed, and the title acquired to all the territory to be embraced within
the park, except as to a small portion of the cemetery tract, and the Pine
street drive was so far completed as to be opened for the public use. Com-
missioners Rehm and Hesing resigned in July, 1876, and the Governor
appointed as their successors, T. F. Withrow and L. J. Kadish. Com-
missioner Culver resigned in June, 1877, and the Governor appointed
Max Hjortsberg as his successor.
Pursuant to the provisions of the original Act, which contemplated
that Lincoln Park should be a city park, the Board, in 1869, applied to
the Mayor of Chicago to issue the bonds of the city for an amount neces-
sary for the purchase of the land to be embraced in the park. The Mayor
refusing to act in the matter, an application was made for a mandamus to
compel the issue of the bonds. The law being declared invalid, necessi-
tated additional legislation, which, by an Act of the General Assembly
approved June i6th, 1871, authorized a special assessment to be made by
the corporate authorities of the towns of North Chicago and Lake View
— within which towns the park lies — on all the lands deemed benefited, for
the enlargement and improvement of Lincoln Park. Pursuant thereto,
an assessment was made in 1873, and confirmed by the Circuit Court. On
an appeal to the Supreme Court an error was pointed out in the law,
which again compelled the Commissioners to invoke the power of the
legislature, and ask that the law be amended in conformity with the decision
of the court.
A special assessment as provided by an Act approved February iSth,
1874, was made in July, 1875, by the Supervisor and Assessor of the town
of North Chicago on all the lots and lands in said town deemed benefited
by the proposed improvement, and was sustained by the Supreme Court.
Thus the Board have been enabled to secure the lands which are embraced
within the limits of the park. The entire expenditures of the Commission
since its organization in 1869 to April ist, 1880, a period of eleven years,
have been, $2,091,968.80; and the receipts during the same period have
been $2,112,526.54.
The park, with the shore drive to Pine street, contains two hundred
138 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
and fifty acres, and has a frontage on Lake Michigan of two and a quartet
miles, and a driveway which borders the lake the entire distance. The
larger proportion of the territory within the limits of the park is now
under improvement, much of it having been converted from a barren waste
of sand into a delightful pleasure resort for the people.
The other parks in the city being less centrally located, and not so con-
venient of access, are frequented largely by the wealthier classes, the
visitors in carriages far outnumbering those on foot. But Lincoln Park,
bordered on two sides by a dense population, and convenient of approach,
is the daily resort of all classes of the community, the poor as well as the
rich enjoying the pleasure it affords, the pedestrians far outnumbering
those who ride.
Without any of the advantages of diversified surface, fertility of soil,
or natural shade, possessed by parks elsewhere to aid in beautifying and
improving the tract which the law has appropriated for the park, there
has been a constant struggle to reduce the soil — if such the sandy surface
may be termed — to subjection, that the waste places might bloom.
Equally vigorous has been the contest to reduce the sea to subjection
and protect the shore from its encroachments. With whatever of means at
command, and with the best information to be had, the Board for many
years resorted to temporary expedients for the protection of the shore; but
so unsightly were these structures, and so unsatisfactory withal, that the
Board abandoned all temporizing, and entered upon the construction of a
breakwater known as the Netherlands plan, consisting of brush mattresses
laid along the shore in a depth of from three to five feet of water, the
surface being paved with stone.
The Commissioners at this writing are F. H. Winston, Joseph Stock-
ton, T. F. Withrow, L. J. Kadish, Max Hjortsberg; and the officers are,.
President, F. H. Winston; Secretary, E. S. Taylor; Treasurer, John De
Koven; Superintendent, Olof Benson.
The Board of West Chicago Park Commissioners was created by an
Act of the legislature, which was approved February 2yth, 1869. Under,
this law the Governor on the twenty-sixth of the following April appointed
Charles C. P. Holden, Henry Greenebaum, George W. Stanford, E. F.
Runyan, Isaac R. Hitt, Clark Lipe, and David Cole, Commissioners.
At a meeting of the Board, held June 25th, 1869, Messrs. Greenebaum,
Hitt, and Runyan, were appointed a committee to select the locations for
the parks contemplated by the Act of the legislature. In his first report,
the President of the Board, George W. Stanford — whose language, with
some slight alterations, is used here to record the early history of the West
Chicago parks — said that under the law, the Board was required to locate
and establish a boulevard running from the North Branch of the Chicago
river, commencing at a point north of Fullerton avenue, running thence
west, one mile or more west of Western avenue, and thence southerly,
with such curves and deviations as the Board should deem expedient, to
the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy railroad line, and on line of said
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 130
boulevard to establish three parks; the north park to be in size not less
than two hundred acres, to cost not to exceed two hundred and fifty thou-
sand dollars, and to be located north of Kinzie street; the middle park to be
located between Kinzie and Harrison streets, to be in size not less than one
hundred acres, and to cost not to exceed four hundred thousand dollars;
the southern park to be not less than one hundred acres in size, and to cost
not to exceed two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, to be located south of
Harrison street, and north of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy railroad
line — the aggregate cost of parks and boulevards not to exceed one million
and fifty thousand dollars.
On the fifteenth of July, the committee, under direction of the
Board, pursuant to the provisions of section nine of the Park Act, sub-
mitted to the public ten plans or suggestions -for the locations of the parks.
These were exhibited for ten days thereafter, and offers for the sale of lands
and donation of the same invited. The result was that no offers were
received, whereupon the committee prepared three other plans or sug-
gestions, which were, on the fifth of August, submitted to the public,
and donations again solicited.
The result was that donations for a portion of the boulevards were
made, and fourteen acres promised conditionally, to be used in the
purchase of the northern park. The committee having this matter in
charge, made their report to the Board on the nineteenth of August,
setting forth the plans which had been submitted to the public under the
provisions of the law, reporting the donations made or promised. Final
action was not taken on this report until the fourth of November,
1869, when the Board, by resolution, definitely fixed and established the
lines and boundaries of parks and boulevards.
The great difficulty of obtaining the land at a reasonable price, naturally
presented itself, and gave rise to prolonged negotiations. The Commis-
sioners had no money and no means of getting any, until special assessments
could be levied and collected, and yet they were in the market endeavoring
to purchase these lands. The lands in the vicinity of the parks, too, were
held at such a figure that the Commissioners did not feel warranted in
paying the prices asked, and invariably refused to buy, except in cases
where concessions of twenty or twenty-five per cent, were made. The
Commissioners were willing to pay for the lands taken, according to the
value placed upon them by the assessors appointed by the courts to con-
demn the same, and they were willing to pay what such assessors would
be reasonably supposed to determine as the worth of the land, without the
trouble of appealing to the courts at all. But how this value was to be
arrived at, except through the assessors, was a question which caused the ex-
penditure of much time and labor. The Commissioners insisted that the
proper solution of the matter was to inquire what the lands were worth at
the time they were selected for the location of the parks, without any
regard to the effect which the contemplated improvements had upon them.
In other words, it was claimed that the lands selected obtained no additional
140 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
value by reason of the improvements, more than lands unfavorably located
outside of the same; that the latter received little or no advance because
they were so far removed from the improvement, and that the former were
entitled to no advance because they were selected as a part of the improve-
ment; that the value of lands unfavorably located outside the parks —
other things being equal — furnished the true test of value of lands inside of
the parks. Upon this basis substantially the Commissioners made their
purchases, making the purchase money payable in three installments, thus
dividing the special assessment into three annual assessments, instead of
raising the money by one assessment as would have been necessary if the
land had been secured by condemnation.
The resources from which to make improvements in the parks were
as follows: First, the proceeds of the bonds which might be issued under
section fifteen of the Park Bill, which could in no event exceed fifty thou-
sand dollars, and which amount had to be diminished by any deficiencies
paid therefrom and also by the necessary outlays required in the condemna-
tion of lands. Second, the proceeds of the half-mill tax, levied under the
sixteenth section of the Act, upon the taxable property of the town of West
Chicago, after a sufficient amount had been set apart to retire the bonds
issued under the fifteenth section. Third, such sum as might be received
from the sale of lands by the city to the Illinois Central Railroad Company
under the provisions of an' Act of the legislature, familiarly known as the
Lake Front Bill.
By the provisions of this Act, the city of Chicago was required to quit
claim to the Illinois Central Railroad Company, the Chicago, Burlington
and Quincy Railroad Company, and to the Michigan Central Railroad
Company the land lying north of the south line of Monroe street, and
south of the south line of Randolph street, and between the east line of
Michigan avenue, and west of the track of the Illinois Central Railroad
Company, for the sum of eight hundred thousand dollars. This sum, by
the provisions of the Act, was set apart as a park fund of the city of Chicago,
to be distributed between the three Divisions of the city, upon the basis of
the assessed value of the taxable real estate of each of said Divisions, and
should be applied to the purchase and improvement of public parks.
Thus the West Chicago park and boulevard system was inaugurated
and so successfully and beneficially that even in 1873 the President of the
Board in his annual report recorded the facts that while in 1868, the year
before the Park Act was passed, the lands added by this Act to the city
were assessed and paid taxes on a valuation of $429,660, in 1872 the same
lands were assessed and paid taxes on a city assessment of $9,506,230; that
the whole amount of general taxes collected by the city from these lands
since the law took effect in 1869, was the sum of $433,820.40, • and
the State, county and town taxes received from the same lands, during the
same time on the increase of assessed values was, in round numbers, $223,000,
making a total of $656,820.40 of revenues received in the four years from
this added territory. This amount was more than forty per cent, of the
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 141
total amount expended for the purchase and improvement of the parks
up to 1872.
This entire Park System, exclusive of boulevards, embraces an area
of five hundred and sixty-five acres, two hundred acres in Humboldt Park,
one hundred and eighty-five acres in Central Park, and one hundred
and eighty in Douglas Park. Humboldt Park is the most northern of-
the three, and Douglas Park the most southern. The system embraces the
connection of the West Parks with the South and Lincoln by boulevards
two hundred and fifty feet wide, as perfect for travel as ingenuity can
devise, and beautiful as nature and art can suggest. Around the city
and through its suburbs upon driveways that are as smooth as a floor, and
edged with a wilderness of flowers and delightful foliage, is a description
of what the parks and boulevards of Chicago are intended to be, and what
they are now to an encouraging degree.
The reader would hardly care to be led through the details of the
artistic development of these parks, although it would be an enchanting story
of decoration, which would hold many a lover of the beautiful for hours,
when even the eyelids would like to droop. It would be a developing
picture of the harvest field transformed into the glory of the flower garden;
of a comparative wild converted into a bower; of a cloud melting into
sunshine; of an endeavor to answer the demands of a refined and refining
taste in a center of advanced and advancing civilization. This would be
an entertaining panorama, and yet likely might be irksome. But this
volume would hardly be acceptable to the most indulgent critic, if it failed
to mention the origin of, and describe the Fire Monument in Central Park.
After the fire of 1871 it was suggested that a monument be erected to
commemorate the disaster, not for the purpose of keeping its memory
green .among those who had seen- and felt it — for there was no doubt that
its path would always be visible to them — but as a reminder to those who
might come after. The original idea was to build in Central Park a
monument exclusively of the relics of the fire, but on mature r deliberation,
the erection of a somber looking tombstone, when a resurrection had taken
place, and when the entire world had poured in its contributions to fill up
the tomb, was deemed inappropriate. It was, therefore, decided to erect a
monument which would have a side upon which the sunbeams would
always crayon the picture of humanity's sympathy for humanity in need,
as well as a side that would cast a shadow. An elegant monument was
consequently designed, and it was intended to have the corner stone laid
on the first anniversary of the fire, but so many business houses had been
built during the year, that the desire seemed to be to celebrate the anni-
versary by moving into the new stores; consequently the laying of the
corner stone of the fire monument was deferred until the thirtieth of
October following. The burnt safes were used as a shaft, but the base was
constructed of material upon which it would be convenient to inscribe the
o-ratitude of Chicago to the world that had remembered her in her distress.
O O
W. L. B. Jenney, the architect and engineer, in 1873, describes the objects
142 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
in view and the monument as follows: "One of the most remarkable facts-
connected with our great fire, was the unprecedented generosity of the
entire civilized world, in contributing to the relief of our needy sufferers.
As a slight token of recognition we would inscribe upon this monument
the names of cities and the amounts of their most liberal donations. For
this purpose eleven large tablets are arranged on the walls of the first story
corresponding to the openings of a Gothic arcade. A twelfth panel is a
doorway leading to the stairway, to the terrace above where are eight other
Gothic panels and tablets. Thf interior walls of the first and second stories
are decorated with other panels for inscriptions, and such cut stone as was
obtained from destroyed buildings. The summit of the spire is surmounted
by a quadruple Gothic column, on which stands a female figure holding
aloft in both hands a flaming torch, emblematic of destruction by fire.
The foundations for this monument were built and the corner stone was
laid by the Masonic fraternity with the usual ceremonies."
Until 1879, very little change was made in the Board of Commis-
sioners, from those originally appointed, until 1878. Emil Dreier was
appointed in 1873; .Louis Shultze and A. C. Millard were appointed in
1876: A. Muns in 1877; Samuel H. McCrea and J. W. Bennett in 1878.
In 1878 the Governor became dissatisfied with the Board, and after inform-
ing it of his intention to constitute a new Board, and being unsuccessfully
opposed in his course, in the courts, he appointed Willard Woodard,
Samuel H. McCrea, Sextus N. Wilcox, John Brenock, Emil Wilken, E.
Erwin Wood, and George Rahlfs.
The South Park System was provided for by an Act of the legisla-
ture known as the South Park Act, which was approved February 24th,
1869, and the Act amendatory and supplementary thereto was approved
April 1 6th, 1869. On the sixteenth of April, 1869 — the history presented
by the Commissioners in 1876 is here adopted — John M. Wilson, George
W. Gage, Chauncey T. Bowen, L. B. Sidway and Paul Cornell, having
been duly appointed Commissioners, qualified as such; and on the thirteenth
of April, 1869, organized as a Board, by the election of John M. Wilson as
President; Paul Cornell, Secretary; George W. Smith, Treasurer; and
George W. Gage, Auditor.
Chauncey T. Bowen's term of office having expired on the first of
March, 1870, he was re-appointed, and afterward, on the first of February,
1871, he having resigned, the vacancy was filled by the appointment
of Potter Palmer. George W. Gage's term having expired on the first of
March, 1871, he was re-appointed. Paul Cornell's term having expired
on the first of March, 1872, he was re-appointed. On the second of May,
1872, John M. Wilson resigned, and C. T. Bowen was appointed to
fill his place, and in March, 1873, the time for which he was appointed
having expired, he was re-appointed to serve for five years. L. B. Sid-
way's term expiring in March, 1874, he was re-appointed for five years.
In April, 1874, Potter Palmer resigned, and James Morgan was appointed
in his place.
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 143
Mr. Cornell resigned the office of Secretary on the first of March,
1871, and William L. Greenleaf was appointed to fill the vacancy. On the
nineteenth of March, 1873, W. L. Greenleaf was appointed collector of
the Board, and H. W. Harmon was elected Secretary. George W. Smith
resigned the office of Treasurer on the first of December, 1870, and
J. Irving Pearce was elected to fill the vacancy. Mr. Pearce's term of
office having expired, Isaac N. Hardin was elected Treasurer on the
thirteenth of March, 1871. On the expiration of his term, in March, 1872
J. Irving Pearce was elected his successor. George W. Gage continued to
hold the office of Auditor until the thirteenth of March, 1871, when he
resigned, and L. B. Sidway was chosen to fill the vacancy. Mr. Sidway
held the office of Auditor until March, 1875, when George W. Gage was
again elected Auditor, and served until his death, on the twenty-fourth of
September, 1875.
Soon after the organization of the Board in 1869, and within the time
limited by the Act establishing the South Park, the lands designated in
said Act were formally selected by the Commissioners, and an accurate
description of the same placed upon their records. Immediately there-
after the Board examined the said lands and made diligent inquiry in rela-
tion to their value. The probable cost of the lands was estimated at one
million, eight hundred and sixty-five thousand and seven hundred and fifty
dollars, and an application was made to the Circuit Court for the
appointment of three assessors to assess that amount upon the property
benefited. This application having been refused, the Board applied for a
mandamus to the Supreme Court. The case made was argued before the
Supreme Court, and a mandamus awarded. Thereupon the Circuit Court
appointed assessors, who entered immediately upon the performance of
their duties. It was afterward ascertained that the cost of the lands com-
posing the park would considerably exceed the original estimate; and the
Board, having been authorized by the Act of June i6th, 1871, to reviser
enlarge and correct the estimate which had been made, it was decided,
upon further examination and inquiry, to increase the assessment to three
million, three hundred and twenty thousand dollars.
These lands were designated in the Act as those situated in the towns
of South Chicago, Hyde Park and Lake, in Cook county, Illinois, to wit:
commencing at the southwest corner of Fifty-first street and Cottage Grove
avenue, running thence south along the west side of Cottage Grove avenue
to the south line of Fifty-ninth street; thence east along the south line of
Fifty-ninth street to the east line of Hyde Park avenue; thence north on
Hyde Park avenue to Fifty-sixth street; thence east along the south line
of Fifty-sixth street to Lake Michigan; thence southerly along the shore of
the lake to a point due east of the center of section twenty-four, in town-
ship thirty-eight north, range fourteen; thence west through the center of
said section twenty-four to Hyde Park avenue; thence north on the east.
line of Hyde Park avenue to the north line of Sixtieth street, so called;
thence west on the north line of Sixtieth street, so called, to Kanka-
144 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
kee avenue; thence north on the east line of Kankakee avenue to Fifty-
first street; then east to a point to the place of beginning; also a piece of
land commencing at the southeast corner of Kankakee avenue and Fifty-
fifth street, running thence west a strip two hundred feet wide adjoining
the north line of Fifty-fifth street, along said Fifty-fifth street to the line
between ranges thirteen and fourteen east; thence north, east of and adT
joining said line, a strip two hundred feet wide, to the Illinois and
Michigan canal; also a parcel of land beginning at the southwest corner
of Douglas place and Kankakee avenue, running thence south a strip of
land one hundred and thirty-two feet wide, along the west side of said
Kankakee avenue, to a point one hundred and fifty feet south of the south
line of Fifty-first street ; also a strip of land commencing at the intersection
of Cottage Grove avenue and Fifty-fii'st street, running thence east one
hundred feet in width on each side of the center line of Fifty-first street, to
a point one hundred feet east of the center line of Drexel avenue; also a
strip of land extending north from the intersection of Fifty-first street with
Drexel avenue, one hundred feet in width on each side of the center line
of said avenue to the north line of Forty-third street; thence northerly, a
strip of land two hundred feet in width, till it meets or intersects with
Elm street in Cleaverville; thence northerly along said Elm street
two hundred feet in width, west from the east line of said street, to
its intersection with Oakwood avenue; which said land and premises,
the Act provided, when acquired by said Commissioners, should be
held, managed and controlled by the Commissioners and their succes-
sors, as a public pai k, for the recreation, health and benefit of the public,
and free to all persons forever, subject to such necessary rules and regula-
tions as should from time to time be adopted by said Commissioners and
their successors for the well ordering and government of the same.
Afterward an amendatory Act provided that the section in the original
Act reading: "A piece of land commencing at the southeast corner of
Kankakee avenue and Fifty-fifth street; running thence west a strip two
hundred feet wide adjoining the north line of Fifty-fifth street," is hereby
amended by substituting in lieu thereof the words: "A piece of land com-
mencing at the northeast corner of Kankakee avenue and Fifty-fifth street,
running thence west a strip two hundred feet wide south of and adjoining
the north line of said Fifty-fifth street."
The area of this system is one thousand and fifty-five acres, and is
reached from the north by two magnificent boulevards — Drexel and Grand
— two hundred feet wide, which are tastefully set with trees and fringed
with flowers. The charming beauty of South Park is largely the creation
of the eminent Chicago Landscape Architect, H. W. S. Cleveland. His
master hand is seen among the lawns, the trees, the walks and drives.
The Board of Commissioners is now composed of James Morgan,
John R. Walsh, Paul Cornell, John B. Sherman and Cornelius Price.
r45
CHAPTER X.
MANUFACTURES.
It is difficult to decide as to what branch of Chicago's history is
entitled to the greatest admiration. The entire record is so exceptional in
grandeur that the mind, after considering one distinguishing element and
then another, thinking each, perhaps, the most astonishing outgrowth
of industry and enterprise that it ever contemplated, finally becomes
bewildered in the attempt to particularize, and contents itself with the
enchanting view of the whole, expressing its estimate in the thought :
Chicago is a marvel! Her buildings are so palatial, her streets are so
roomy, her parks and boulevards are so elegant, her people are so public
spirited, that the mind hesitates to linger upon parts, and becomes, probably,
too often a devotee of the entirety alone. But a grand whole is made of
grand parts, any one of which is entitled to the utmost reverence and
adulation.
The manufacturing interests of Chicago are among the brightest of
the numerous ones of which she and the country are proud. They are not
only world wide in reputation, but they have played a prominent part in
advancing civilization, having enabled the world to increase its pro-
ductiveness and to enjoy life, which are among the highest objects at which
civilization aims. Our reaper and car manufactures in themselves are
sufficient to sustain such a claim.
It is interesting, therefore, to glance at the rise and progress of manu-
facturing in Chicago, which as late as 1850, amounted to almost nothing.
In that year the entire force employed in manufacturing establishments in
Cook county was scarcely more than two thousand workmen, and the
annual product of manufacturing hardly exceeded two and a half million
dollars. In 1853 there was considerable life instilled into this branch of
industry, which, perhaps, had developed as rapidly as the most sanguine
had expected. In September of this year the Chicago Locomotive Com-
pany organized, with a hundred and fifty thousand dollars capital, and
built the first three locomotives constructed in Chicago; the American
Car Company began business and turned out nearly a half million
dollars of work; the Union Car Works built thirty passenger and ten
baggage cars; Stone & Boomer constructed ten bridges and nineteen turn-
tables; five carnage and wagon establishments manufactured nearly a
hundred and twenty thousand dollars worth of their specialties; five
furniture factories were in operation; four machine shops aggregated an
146 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
annual business of two hundred and seventy thousand dollars; three leather
factories employed a hundred and seven men, and did a very respectable
business ; two stove foundries were started ; and hats, caps, fur goods, soap,
candles, clothing, trunks, harness, reapers and mowers were manufactured
at this date in Chicago. The year made a very creditable showing in
manufactures, and as the commencement of an interest which is now the
pride of the city and an object of universal admiration, it is regarded with
a feeling of reverence by the Chicagoan. From this very satisfactory
beginning manufacturing fairly leaped into greatness. Within three years
the value of manufactured articles was over fifteen million dollars, and
several thousand operators were employed in the manufacturing estab-
lishments. In 1856 the iron manufacturers, in their standard special-
ties, took the lead, and the product is estimated as worth about four million
dollars. Unfortunately the next highest value of manufactures during 1856
was found in intoxicating drinks, and it is still more unfortunate that the
business of manufacturing liquors is yet one of the most prosperous indus-
tries in Chicago. This great and profitable business, as men term it, never
created a cent of wealth for the community that sustains it, and never will.
Our pauperism and crime can be principally traced to it; we have ten
policemen to every one that would be needed if there were no barrooms;
we have a hundred murders where there would be one if it were not for
the trade in intoxicants.
Brewing and distilling', for the time being, over-capped even that most
illustrious industry — the manufacture of agricultural instruments, which in
1856 furnished employment for only about six hundred workers, and
yielded a product worth the modest sum of one million, one hundred and
thirty-four thousand, and three hundred dollars; but at this writing the least
informed need scarcely be told that the largest manufacturing establish-
ments in Chicago are those which are turning out machinery for the farm.
During the year 1856 there were manufactured here, a million dollars worth
of stone and marble ; over seven hundred thousand dollars worth of bricks ;
five hundred and forty-three thousand dollars worth of furniture, and nearly
a million dollars worth of stone and marble manufactures.
The census of 1860 gives the following showing of the manufacturing
industry of the whole of Cook county : four hundred and sixty-nine estab-
lishments, with a capital of over five and a half million dollars, employing
nearly six thousand workmen, and turning out a product of almost eight
million dollars in value.
In 1870 the government census report of the manufactures of the city,
was that the number of manufacturing establishments was 1,146; hands
employed, 20,156; capital employed, $27,748,501; product, $62,736,228.
This, however, came far short of the actual production of manufactures in,
the city. The TRIBUNE published an "annual review" for the year, which
gave a much more accurate description of the manufacturing interests,
although the list is not exclusively comprised of legitimate manufactures.
It was as follows:
es..
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 147
Agricultural Implements ............................................ $2003000
Baking Powder ......................................................... » f
Loots and Shoes ........................................................ 1500000
457856
..... ...:. ......... ; ....................................... iSooooo
Breweries (262,035 bbl*-) ................................................ 2620^0
Bricks .................................................................. „<,£,
Boilers ................................................................. 2 , . sco
Books, Printing, etc ...................................................... , QQ^ ^^
Buildings ........................................................ .....'.'.' 12 ooo ooo
Bakeries ................................................................ 1300000
Cabinet-makers, etc ..................................................... x 2-» ,gg
Carriages and Wagons ...................................... ... ....'.'!.'.'.' i 368 982
Carpets ........ ......................................................... ! 3OO
Car wheels and Fixtures ................................................. ,2g r-^
Cotton ................................................................. 82 ooo
Clothing ........................................................ . ....... r ooo QQO
Cooperage ......... . .................................................... 450000
Confectionery ........................................................... 900 ooo
Distillers and Rectifiers ................................................. 6068 221
Flour and Grists ........................................................ 2 830 334
Foundry and Machine Shops ........................ ................ o o-~ <^,
Fire Safes ...................... '. ...................................... i\o ooo
Gas ............ • ........................................................ 2 200 ooo
Gloves, etc ............................................................. 6 ooo
Honey ................................................................. 7 Soo
Hats, Caps, etc ......................................................... 400 ooo
Instruments, Musical ................................................... 3,50 o^o
Lanterns ............................................................... 60 ooo
Lead Pipe, efcc ................................................... ....... '588 400
Leather, Tanning, etc ......... . ......................................... 2 229 515
Lightning Rods ..................................................... ... 8 ooo
Lime ......................... - .......................................... 288 332
Lumber ............................................................... 800000
Maltsters ...................................................... 347 320
245744
3541733
Paints .................................................................. 508 ooo
Planing Mills, etc ....................................................... 8 928 9^9
Picture Frames, etc ..................................................... 60 ooo
Patent Medicines ........................................................ 218800
Provisions .............................................................. 13 500 ooo
Paper Collars ........................................................... 160 ooo
Refrigerators ............................................................ 107 500
Rolling Mills and Forges ................................................ 2 229221
Saws ................................................................... 22 850
Scales ........ •. ......................................................... 75 ooo
Shot .................................................................... 2 10 ooo
Saddles, etc., and Trunks ................................................ 388 485
Soap and Candles ....................................................... 334 400
Ship Carpentry ......................................................... 216 ooo
Steam Heaters ........................................................ 90 ooo
Stone Cutting .......................................................... i 265 375
Telegraph Supplies ...................................................... 6 ooo
Terra Cotta ............................................................. 122 ooo
Tin and Hardware ....................................................... 330 ooo
Tobacco and Cigars ..................................................... i 750 ooo
Type Foundries ......................................................... 25 ooo
Varnish ................................................................ 445 ooo
Vinegar ................................................................. 209 100
Wire Fabrics .......................................................... 8 700
Total $85 310 2 13
Upon this spot have been developed some of the most extensive, useful
and most renowned manufactures in the world, and in no»waycan a clearer
idea of what has been accomplished in this direction be conveyed than by
148 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
a brief notice of the development of the most prominent manufacturing
interests in severally . Among the first of these is the world-renowned
McCormick machinery — consisting of reapers, mowers and harvesters— "-of
such acknowledged superiority to all other machinery of like character
manufactured in the world, that at every world's fair from that in London
in 1851 to that in Paris in 1878, it was awarded the first prize, events which
were of a character not only gratifying to the McCormicks, but also to
Chicago.
In retrospectively glancing over the history of the manufacture of
harvesting machinery, it seems almost incredible that fifty years should
effect such a marvelous change in the manner of cutting both grain and
grass, and to-day we can scarcely imagine how our predecessors ever
managed to raise and harvest enough for the support of their own house-
holds, considering the primitive means they employed to till the soil and
gather their products. Consider for an instant the plow, the harrow, the
flail, the reap-hook and the scythe of fifty years ago, in comparison with
the sulky plow, the grain drill, the thresher and separator, the mower,
and the harvester and self-binder of the present day, and behold what a
wondrous stride has been made in the results which now one man's labor •
is able to achieve.
Fifty years ago the McCormick machine was but a rude experiment,
manufactured in a small log work shop, on the old McCormick homestead
farm, in Rockbridge county, Virginia. To-day the McCormick reaper
works are among the largest manufacturing establishments in the world ; and
wherever grain or grass is a part of the commercial product of any country,
these implements are found indispensable to the agricultural community.
From 1831 to 1845 a limited number of McCormick reapers were built
each year, in shops on the old homestead farm, and were much improved
in construction as a familiarity with the requisites for success became more
and more understood. Not, however, until 1845-6 did they begin to be-
come generally known ; during those two years they were manufactured at
Brockport, New York, and in 1847 both at Chicago, Illinois, and Cincin-
nati, Ohio; since 1848 they have been built in this city exclusively.
From a capacity for the production of about five hundred machines in
1847, their shops were extended and enlarged, until at the time of the
great Chicago fire of October 9th and loth, 1871, they were capable of
producing, when taxed to their utmost, ten thousand machines per year.
Their entire works, machinery and stock of material having been totally
destroyed by the fire of 1871, they decided upon the removal of their
location, from the old situation near the mouth of the Chicago river —
which is now very near the heart of the great city — to their present site,
corner of Western and Blue Island avenues. Immediately after the fire
they erected temporary sheds upon their old site, into which they moved
in February, 1872, and there manufactured three thousand machines for
that season's trade. The latter part of July, 1872, they broke ground for
the foundation of their present works, and they were all completed and
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
149
occupied by the first of the following February; and within their walls
they manufactured and completed, for the season of 1873, over ten thousand
reaping and mowing machines.
Their present works are located at the corner of Western and Blue
Island avenues, being in the extreme southwestern portion of the city,
where they have all the advantages and facilities afforded by direct railroad
connection with every railway that runs into Chicago, so that they receive,
in their own yard, on board cars, most of the material that comes to them
over the railroad lines; and their machines are shipped, without ever beino-
loaded upon a wagon, from their works to all parts of the world. They
can load as many as seventeen cars from their platform atone time; and in
the shipping season, the machines taken away from their works each day
comprise a train load by themselves. The South Branch of the Chicago
river affords them twelve hundred and sixty-nine feet of dockage, where
vessels, bringing them lumber and iron, unload the same upon their own
premises.
The entire area of grounds comprises twenty-two acres, about three
acres of which are covered by buildings; the balance is used for railroad
tracks, lumber yards, and for the storage of coal, coke, charcoal, pig iron,
and other articles required to be in easy access of the factory. The different
manufacturing buildings are located in the shape of a rectangle, having a
frontage to the north and south of three hundred and fifty feet, and to the
east and west of four hundred and sixty feet, and contain a floor surface of
almost seven acres. The main building, occupying the north and west
fronts, is five stories high (including the basement), and sixty feet in width,
comprising ten rooms, one hundred and thirty by sixty; five rooms one
hundred by ninety; and fifteen rooms one hundred by sixty feet. The
wood-working, the iron-working and finishing, the painting and varnish-
ing, and the storage departments are all situated in this main building. The
east front is occupied by the foundry and core room, a building two hundred
and forty-five by ninety feet, with a truss roof, forty-five feet high, and a
cupola building fifty by forty feet, three stories high.
In the center of the court is a building, forty by two hundred and
seventy feet, three stories high, with a cellar which is used for the repair
department, as well as departments for milling and cleaning castings, sickle
making and grinding, canvas apron manufacturing, brass casting, and
japanning.
Between the center building and the west wing is situated the engine
and boiler house, forty by sixty feet — with a smoke stack one hundred and
sixty-three feet high — within which is a vertical condensing engine of three
hund/ed horse power, which drives the machinery of the entire establish-
ment, being supplied with steam from five locomotive (or flue) boilers,
each eighteen feet long and five feet in diameter. The entire works are
heated by steam in the Winter time by two of these boilers.
On the south front of the rectangle is the blacksmith shop, sixty by
one hundred and sixty feet, with a truss roof thirty-six feet high, where
i ^o CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
bolt and forging machinery, drop and trip hammers, furnaces and black-
smith fires are engaged converting raw iron and steel into the multiform
shapes required in manufacturing the various McCormick machines.
In the various departments of these extensive works they employ a great
multiplicity of machinery, embracing the iriost improved wood and iron-
working machines of the present day, which turn out an infinite variety of
the very best finished work that the demands of the times require. They
have constantly at work from five to seven hundred employees in the different
branches of these works, embracing blacksmiths, machinists, lathe men,
carpenters, pattern makers, molders, painters, laborers, and foremen of the
various departments; and in some seasons of the year they work a double
force, keeping their factory going both night and day. Many of these men
have been with them for twenty, and some for even thirty years. With
their present facilities C. H. & L. J. McCormick can turn out twenty-five
thousand machines a year as easily as they could ten thousand at their old
works.
The Scoville Iron Works, which were originated by Hiram H. Scoville,
and are now owned and managed by his son who bears his name, are one of
the oldest and most extensive establishments of the kind in the West. The
large business of this establishment consists of the manufacture of pile driv-
ing engines, over head traveling engines, derricks and general machinery,
including mining machinery of all kinds. These works are situated at
number 21 North Clinton street, and an account of their origin and de-
velopment is more fully detailed in the sketch of their founder's life and
in that of Hiram H. Sco-ville, Jr. — his successor— which appear at the close
of this chapter.
At Grand Crossing, a suburb, is located the extensive Wilson Sewing
Machine factory, and the headquarters of the company being in the city,
the industry can be legitimately claimed as belonging to Chicago. This
company established itself in this location a few years since, purchasing a
building formerly erected, and for a time occupied by a watch manufactur-
ing company. The Wilson sewing machine enjoys a merited popularity,
and the business of manufacturing it is, therefore, very large, furnishing
employment to an army of employees. The industry being a Western
one, Western people point to it as an element of manufacturing progress,
and Chicago may be excused for manifesting considerable enthusiasm
over it.
The Pullman Palace Car Company has also selected Chicago as the
place for building their celebrated cars. In one of the suburbs they are
now engaged in erecting mammoth buildings, and the industry will attract
so many people that it will create a town of itself.
On the corner of Canal and Lake streets is a massive and capacious
structure which is contemplated with considerable interest by the iron trade
of the country, in view of the fact that in office and storage capacity,
special appointments, and architectural conveniences, and shipping and
carrying facilities, it makes Chicago the site of the model iron warehouse of
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 151
the United States. The Northwest is now a nation of itself, and Chicago
being the mercantile and shipping metropolis of the whole western half
of our big continent, it is a matter alike of necessity, interest and ambition,
to extend to the traffic of such an empire a line of accommodations that shall
be of a corresponding magnitude. Messrs. Jones & Laughlins, whose old
quarters on the corner of Canal and Jackson streets have long constituted
the base and center of the general Northwestern traffic in heavy iron and
steel merchandise — with an important bearing on the commerce of the
nation in the great items of bar and sheet-iron, patent cold-rolled shafting,
light T rail, machine bolts, screws, rivets, nails, anvils, steel, and general
mechanical hardware outfits — have erected a building for their own occu-
pancy, and have moved in with a stock about double the largest
accommodation of the old house. A single feature of the new edifice is
a railroad track arrangement for the entrance and shelter, loading and un-
loading, of half a dozen cars at once — the shipping and handling facilities
presenting a magnificent item of economy — enabling them to sell, it is said,
at about Eastern prices. Messrs. Jones & Laughlins are proprietors of the
American Iron Works, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with their three thousand
hands, and thirty-five acres under roof. The indications are that Chicago will
now become a main point of outlet and distribution of the product of those
Titan works. The dimensions of the new building are one hundred and
twenty-one thousand and -. five hundred superficial feet, with a special sec-
tion of eleven thousand square feet, by way of a one story addition for the
storage of bar iron and bar steel "on end." The largest frontage is on Canal
street, where it extends from Lake street the comfortable walking distance
of two hundred and seventy feet. The receipts of the establishment
average from six to twelve car loads a day.
The Prosser Twin Cylinder Car Company is located at 26 Henry
street, and are the owners and manufacturers of the Prosser twin cylinder
car. This car is composed of two large cylinders, which hold grain, and
revolve upon the ordinary track.- It is claimed for these cars that they
are cheaper; lighter; more durable; occupy less space on the rail; are of
easier draft; will not laminate the track; may be run at greater speed;
that they lower the center of gravity; reduce the windage of the train;
remove the weight of load from the axle; require less oil, less attention
and less parts; can dry wet grain in the car, and prevent it from heating,
souring or molding, while in transit; are less liable to jump the track; are
better adapted to run grades and crossings; are easier controlled by t.he
engine in starting and stopping; require less lateral motion, have less
oscillation, are steadier on the track, and are less liable to be thrown
off by a broken rail or in running curves; are easier on the journals, on
the car, and on the road ; are safer for the engineer, for the conductor and
for the brakeman; are especially adapted to the transit of grain and can
carry more of it a greater distance for a less amount of money and power
than by any other way yet known.
And as a laro-e number of these claims are self-evident to those skilled
152 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
in mechanics, their great importance is conceded at once, while nearly all
of the others have been practically demonstrated by experiment to be in
accord with the claims heretofore set forth.
Therefore, with such an array of facts in its favor, is it not reasonable
to conclude that a revolution in the cost and mode of transporting grain
must be effected by the practical introduction and use of the Prosser Twin
Cylinder Car? And as hundreds of millions of bushels of grain are
annually transported from the great West to the seaboard, it follows that
a saving of but a single penny per bushel, will in the aggregate amount
to millions of dollars; consequently, any improvement in this direction
must be of great value not only to the railroad's interest but also to the
producer and consumer, thus benefiting all.
For many years effort has been made to devise cheap and practical
means for the prevention of the heating of grain and for the drying of
damp grain, and much time; labor and money have been expended to that
end. From one cause and another, however, failure to achieve a satis-
factory result has been the almost universal ending of such attempts. The
process was either defective or too expensive, and disappointment after
disappointment was experienced. There are establishments in which
grain is "doctored," and made to appear as a superior grade to what it was
when taken hold of by the "physicians;" but appearances do not answer
the demand. Any process for drying grain, if successful, must really
make it superior. The grain must not be injured in appearance or quality.
Some years ago Oliver Holden, a practical mechanical engineer,
invented a machine, which he began to manufacture in Chicago, and
which seemed to be all that was required to successfully dry any cereal
without injury to it. This machine consisted of two funnel shaped cylinders,
about thirty feet long, the outer one being five feet in diameter at the
larger end and three feet at the smaller, and the inner having a diameter
of about three feet at the larger end and three-fifths of that diameter at
the smaller. On the inside of the larger cylinder shelves were attached,
running the entire length. The inner cylinder is filled with steam, which
is confined, the condensation being drawn off by a syphon. The two
cylinders, being affixed to each other at the ends, both revolve at the same
time and in the same direction. The grain enters at the small end of the
machine, is taken up upon the shelves before mentioned, and precipitated
upon the hot inner cylinder, and is then again picked up by the shelves
to be raised and precipitated again, this process continuing until the grain
is carried out at the large end of the machine.
A company was subsequently formed for the manufacture of the
apparatus, but the exact or even the approximate extent of their business
is not known.
The following statement shows the number of establishments of
productive industry, with their capital, number of employes, wages paid,
value of material and value of product for the year ending May 3ist, 1880,
in the city of Chicago and the adjoining towns of Hyde Park, Lake, and
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
'53
Lake View, as developed under the direction of the United States Census
Office, and includes all such industries, except distilling and brewin°-:
CHARACTER OF BUSINESS.
Number of es-
tablishments.
1
'E,
•
O
Greatest num-
ber of hands.
Men employed.
E
' WT3
c 5»
OJ >>
c.2
o o«
12
Iron works rolled, cast and wrought
5*
*4
64
15
H
5
6
4
9
4
6
12
16
7
98
34
92
5
i5
4
10
6
H7
J59
58
163
5°
15
6
5
10
62
21
131
202
40
10
II
99
21
15
12
16
72
94
23
29
ii
6
9
8
29
291
C
$ 7 289617
5H7co
940 loo
88600
4456oo
45 500
105 650
78 ooo
118 ooo
51400
44800
140 600
4 320 662
192 650
940 375
399 872
123 701
32 loo
14400
27 500
30650
296 200
H0975
i 546 235
2 232 101
2 949 125
380690
iO 900
154 §00
3! OOO
4510
3i956o
2 414000
997 °75
6 53° 275
692 850
1 3 950
1 65 5°°
7o7 50i
1499°°
48 650
6i;2 ico
870 200
8464900
465 950
7s 959
455 250
So79°°
176 200
ioo 600
3x,25o
426 900
825 300
6 700
6801
i 049
i 282
424
614
77
1 68
245
IOO
79
29
249
4925
322
i 978
474
631
H
5°
77
220
' 455
2 IIO
4 406
6 170
i 200
87
123
36
42
953
i 579
2 IOO
II 808
2 IOS
79
233
4°57
982
185
187
238
12 891
762
186
900
328
217
236
42
914
2553
g
6 125
811
i 042
2IO
530
64
117
198
58
74
26
140
4323
'53
i 215
34i
352
58
30
38
68
159
38i
i 606
34i8
4 955
834
66
41
29
23
716
i 282
i 266
4605
213
29
Si
246
74
IO
167
226
7 198
575
129
362
^ 215
no
176
33
284
i 702
7
Steam engines and boilers
Miscellaneous machinery
26
Galvanized and corrugated iron
Brass and copper works
Carriage, wagon, and car springs. .......
Cutlery and edge tools and grinding same .
Steam heating apparatus
Hot-air furnaces
Scales and scale repairing
Saws and saw repairing
Miscellaneous hardware
I
5
Bridges and railroad stock and repairing. .
Building and repairing vessels and boats. .
Tin and sheet iron work
150
8
2
I
Wire goods and barbed wire fence
Plumbino" and gas and steam fitting
Gas fixtures, machines, and meters
Lock and gunsmiths
Iron shutters and doors and vault doors. .
Miscellaneous tools, fixtures, and supplies.
Electrical, photographic, and telephone in-
struments and supplies
26
Blacksmithing and horseshoeing
Carriage and wagon making and repairing.
Planing mills and sash, door, and box mak-
ing
35
r4
69
39
Furniture of all kinds
Moldings and picture frames
Patterns and models
Cigac boxes
44
Bungs, plugs, and wooden faucets
Wood turning and wood carving
Cooperage, cisterns and tanks.
Tannin^ and currying
99
357
5919
i 812
22
149
2757
543
149
2
Boots and shoes
Men's clothin""
Men's furnishing goods
Men's hats and caps
Furs
Straw goods, millinery, and ladies' wear. .
Knit goods, Cloves, and mittens
Hair goods
Flouring mills
Malting
Slaughtering and meat packin<T
Bakeries
I24
44
178
40
88
i
73
366
Confectionery and bakeries
Confectioner v, ice cream, and catering. . .
Coffee and spice mills
Baking and yeast powders and extracts. . .
Soda and mineral waters, etc
Root beer and bitters and bottling beer. . .
Vinegar, pickles, sauces, canned goods, and
farinaceous preparations
Tobacco and cigars
Pines. . .
!54
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
CHARACTER OF BUSINESS.
Number of es-
tablishments.
jjj
'5<
i
U
Greatest num-
ber of hands.
Men employed.
a
CTD
C ^
% o"
o"3<
Harness, saddlery, whips, whip-lashes, anc
horse clothing.
85
39
122
44
21
121
6
6
4
'7
43
9
15
12
IO
J3
II
41
20
II
16
5
16
6
16
5
9
40
7
4
6
47
15
16
7
9
22
21
35
51
168
5
12
7
16
15
126
$ 219 550
I 295 400
i 979 300
718 775
i 797 500
215401
i 293 800
117 ooo
630500
98350
i 149 ooo
385 700
I 140 800
155 ooo
38300
116 200
107 750
243 200
62 610
78 200
130 TOO
I 275
1 68 350
2775
161 ooo
179650
24 800
125 150
52 500
65 250
39600
181 625
101 950
61 850
31 50°
24 35°
151 900
339 250
348800
272 900
437 340
14 ooo
184521
19 ooo
3i 7°5
459000
13 609 701
811
i 295
3532
960
574
1783
589
149
294
15*
1 88
231
611
231
159
430
223
599
J59
439
313
8
365
i3
601
1x8
52
263
131
i59
106
255
258
121
61
155
296
979
i 495
4 252
2 864
'47
278
74
189
i 594
4 182
357
i 068
2 031
628
434
879
454
in
2IO
81
158
176
387
213
87
77
I25
271
1 06
177
181
6
104
9
491
166
33
182
84
"5
76
139
207
57
36
109
212
676
I 201
1978
I 809
64
217
60
tax
748
2923
ls5
65
654
117
23
i
40
Newspaper publications
Job printing, book-binding, and publishing
Engraving,lithographing,printers'supplies
Linseed oil, white lead, paints, varnish, lead
pipe, and shot
Painting. .
Lard oil, oleomargarine and stearine
Rendering and bone-boiling
Axle-grease and glue
77
13
i
38
24
Dye-works and dves
Rectifying and compounding of spirits. . .
Chemicals
Soaps ...
Irunks, valises, and traveling bags
Fancy leather and rubber goods
63
237
Paper boxes and bags
Baskets willow and rattan ware
.Brooms, brushes and dusters
148
3i
J52
63
i
118
Upholstery, carriage trimming, etc
Paper hanging, draperies, window shades
and carpet makin^
Mattresses and beddin"
Carpet weaving '
Sails, tents, awnings, etc
Umbrellas and parasols ....
Sewing machines, attachments and furni-
ture
5
12
3
ii
Burial cases and undertakers' goods. . . .*.
Gold, silver, ard nickel plating
Jewelry, watch cases,repairing watches,etc.
Gold, bronze and metal frames
Show cases and metal and glass signs. . . .
Stained and ornamental glass
3
* i
62
Photography
Musical instruments
Perfumery and medicinal preparations. . .
Artificial limbs, deformity appliances,
trusses, dental supplies, etc
42
22
Terra cotta and plaster work
Marble works
Stone cutting . .
Brick making
J3
Masonry buildin°"
Carpenters and builders
I
Plasterers
Roofing material and roofing
Vault and sidewalk lights, iron railing,
Sewer building ...
Street paving, dock building and dredging.
Other establishments
357
Totals for the city of Chicago
3683
17
38
H
$77 724 652
i 966 ooo
984 600
1 6 850
11081967 160
i 694 i 228
9!3 548
Si 56
15718
28
3
5
Town of Hyde Park
Grand total
3752
580 692 IO2
11350768992
15 754
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
'55
CHARACTER OF BUSINESS.
y
1 =
3 c:
fi"
B*
>
3
1
•
B
tuo
ft
*
Value of mate-
rial.
i
s,
<«- c/5
0 u
<U 3
3
75
Iron works, rolled, cast and wrought. . . .
Steam engines and boilers
241
22
3°
12
$ 305903C
414 940
589 076
125 215
236 585
3674C
59800
98 coo
29762
36740
18283
76033
2 187 135
85 220
596 26.
154 789
2O6 89^
2632;
I438I
19270
26 705
"3503
204 592
806766
I 531 103
2 314699
358 297
33 005
36268
12 620
12742
3" 307
710 080
769 80 1
3 475 769
506870
25 326
53 458
693 544
120340
26 132
105 326
1 08 709
33985i6
325 835
65 866
243 034
147496
70864
75 850
12 870
149 429
783 720
3050
178383
834 685
$ ii 275815
i 016 ooc
939 3°7
260 20C
336 520
151 ooo
42 150
392 750
52 107
151 ooo
12 300
I05 i?5
5 373 752
59980
i 672 224
906086
270 968
60 109
9 155
29 950
29 920
149 837
J33 149
869 581
6 395 622
3412631
644300
7 25i
f 14 090
13 200
f 5 337
637 480
4 128 500
1 37° 993
ii 682 764
i 386 952
31 5°°
232 ooo
i 898 177
44i 55i
65 300
i 937 609
i 583 019
70 719 839
i 600898
201 380
i 497 350
2 372021
789 500
162 500
47600
907 785
2 065 IO3
3 025
4°4 575
885 901
$ 15 673 624
i 617073
2 160 074
475 4°°
751 700
222 500
I5O 9OO
533 230
1 10 200
222 500
43 500
272 133
8 030 398
190 850
2 946 842
I 341 860
594 812
130 800
39094
60 810
89524
567 630
484 619
2 346 46l
8 981 281
7 i 88 278
i 326 085
62 522
179411
34600
3i 51.5
i 121 594
5 637 coo
2 478 116
17 423 607
2 279 464
79700
378 500
3 I07 94i
640 882
J35 9»5
2 217 564
i 960 780
8 1 570070
2 270 036
306 050
2 IO2 095
2 868 879
I 036 500
344600
no 550
I 381 761
3 701 762
14 200
743 "6
2 538 199
Miscellaneous machinery
Galvanized and corrugated iron
Brass and copper works
Carriage, wagon, and car springs. ......
I
1
I
Cutlery and edge tools and grinding same.
Steam heating apparatus
1 lot-air furnaces
Scales and scale repairing
Saws and saw repairin°r
Miscellaneous hardware
46
63
Bridges and railroad stock and repairing. .
Building and repairing vessels and boats. .
Tin and sheet iron work
250
74
25
i
i
Wire goods and barbed wire fence. . . .
Pluinbincr and gas and steam fitting
Gas fixtures, machines, and meters
Lock and gunsmiths
Iron shutters and doors and vault doors. .
Miscellaneous tools, fixtures, and supplies.
Electrical, photographic, and telephone in-
struments and supplies
3
4
2
135
376
448
I84
Blacksmithinf and horseshoeing
Carriage and wagon making and repairing.
Planing mills and sash, door, and box mak-
ins? .
Furniture of all kinds
Moldings and picture frames
Patterns and models
23
6
6
30
30
46
415
49
7
2
J35
40
i
2
Bungs plu^s and wooden faucets
Wood turning and wood carving
Cooperage, cisterns and tanks
Tannin0' and currying
Boots and shoes
Men's clothinf
Men's furnishing goods
Men's hats and caps
Furs
Straw goods, millinery, and ladies' wear. .
Knit goods, gloves, and mittens
Hair goods.
Flouring mills
Malting
Slaughtering and meat packing
298
22
8
I32
45
7
6
i
36
128
i
39
I
Bakeries
•Confectionery and bakeries
Confectionery, ice cream, and catering. . .
Coffee and spice mills
Baking and yeast powders and extracts. . .
Soda and mineral waters, etc
Root beer and bitters and bottling beer. . .
Vinegar, pickles, sauces, canned goods, and
farinaceous preparations
Tobacco and cigars
Pipes
Harness, saddlery, whips, whip-lashes, and
Newspaper publications
'56
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
CHARACTER OF BUSINESS.
Youth under
1 6 years.
12
°«
D,
•
<u
be
rt
£
Value of mate-
rial.
•6
p
CU
<*« /
S-8
1) 3
"rt
>
Job printing, book-binding, and publishing
Engraving,lithographing,printers'supplies.
Linseed oil, white lead, paints, varnish, lead
pipe, and shot
297
149
IS
II
$ I 315 383
390661
279 058
460 716
235 910
64 044
1 06 50O
50778
95 34 1
90725
187 292
102 170
41 170
93 55°
48750
133590
50373
!37 655
87491
i 700
98 485
2 516
166 612
67 020
18645
146 570
48 620
66 776
47 545
101 388
122 2O9
38378
22 OOO
35929
109 722
346 292
450 957
897409
888 746
37463
70 oio
33462
5586o
383696
i 713 609
$ i 863 534
327 044
4 089 695
434 832
5 826 500
i 123 ooo
321 737
63815
4473411
598 050
2 910 047
295 7°°
133 190
391 400
54225
271 337
i5335i
500 ooo
183 TOO
1 743
335 672
2 IOO
209 285
164500
9720
97917
32 700
122 775
38 564
8 1 885
207 228
165 250
29 200
15 021
228 940
354325
"5873
I 808 550
I 324990
37000
396 327
57 M4
79 016
777 576
5 59 1 899
$ 4 "6 577
i 117 616
5 295 H4
i 126 509
6508800
i 327000
658 ooo
177 461
5 024 220
885600
3 367 3Jo
498 ooo
212 249
579 792
1 20 400-
5i7 322
264 755
762 089
47 * 508
6 150
526 864
7 600
519468
290 600
58700.
405 202
112032
254 ioa
113 612
325 978
4T5 I25
285 33»
90 800
77399
443563
831 142
790400
2 902 638
2 585 480
91 984
54s 931
116 485
1 60 932
1 397 501
9 137 650-
Painting
Lard oil oleomargarine and stearine
Rendering and bone-boiling
Axle-grease and glue
7
6
Dye-works and dyes
Rectifying and compounding of spirits. . .
Chemicals
10
74
10
i
34
10
44
7
20
20
Soaps ....
Trunks, valises, and traveling bags
Fancy leather and rubber goods
Paper boxes and bags
Baskets, willow and rattan ware
Brooms, brushes and dusters
Upholstery, carriage trimming, etc.
Paper hanging, draperies, window shades
and carpet making
Mattresses and beddinf
Carpet weaving
Sails, tents, awnings, etc
IO
I
37
i
6
49
3
IO
3
6
22
5
Umbrellas and parasols
Sewing machines, attachments and furni-
ture
Burial cases and undertakers' goods
Gold, silver, and nickel plating
Jewelry,watch cases,repairing watches,etc.
Gold, bronze and metal frames
Show cases and metal and glass signs. . . .
Stained and ornamental glass
Photography
Musical instruments
Perfumery and medicinal preparations . . .
Artificial limbs, deformity appliances,
trusses, dental supplies, etc
Terra cotta and plaster work
9
4
9
22
Marble works
Stone cutting
Brick making
Masonry building
Carpenters and builders
10
Plasterers
Roofing material and roofing
Vault and sidewalk lights, iron railing,
grating and ornamental iron work
Sewer building
I
I
276
4797
171
26
2
Street paving, dock building and dredging.
Other establishments
Totals for the citv of Chicago
$36 659 826
614 960
316 820
23775
$178 244 570
1 574 030
935 026
54080
$248 844 125
3 015 loo
i 440 470
106 ooo
Town of Hyde Park
Town of Lake
Town of Lake View
Grand total
4996
$37 615 381
$180 807 706
$253 405 695
The manufacture of oleomargarine and butterine which is mentioned
in the above tables, is among those enterprises which do not reflect much
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 157
credit upon a city in which they are carried on. As the reader is doubtless
aware, oleomargarine and butterine are the names given to imitation butter,
the former being made by mixing butter with caul fat, and the latter by mix-
ing butter with the fat expressed from leaf lard, both products being colored
and flavored to bear a close resemblance to genuine butter. Microscopical
and chemical examinations have demonstrated that these compounds are
liable to be exceedingly filthy, and that they contain living animalcule,
which are threatening in appearance, and which the best authorities be-
lieve to be inimical to health and life. When we consider that one
oleomargarine factory in the city of New York uses a hundred thousand
pounds of caul fat per day, the conclusion that it is next to impossible to
obtain that large quantity in a perfectly pure and healthy state, will be
quickly formed. Few animals are slaughtered in perfect health. If they
have been carefully fed and cared for, the hardships of transportation to
the place of slaughtering, imperfect rest, irregular feeding and watering,
and the excitement of the journey necessarily operate to disarrange the
system, and cause a feverish condition. To all appearances the animal may
be in health, and yet be seriously diseased. But many of the animals that
are slaughtered have no suitable care, and there is not the slightest pre-
tense of bestowing such care. They are fed upon the slops from breweries
and distilleries, and the condition in which cattle thus fed go to the shambles
is abundantly demonstrated by the fact that if they are fed long enough
upon this food they will become so horribly diseased that their teeth fall
out and their tails drop off. That a hundred thousand pounds of pure
caul fat can be daily gathered, therefore, is entirely incredible.
But the lard butter is still more dangerous. While the caul fat used
in the manufacture of oleomargarine is exposed to a considerable degree
of heat — although not to a degree sufficient to kill all the animalculae —
the fat pressed out of leaf lard for use in the manufacture of butterine, is
exposed to no heat at all, and thus every one who eats this variety of
imitation butter is clearly exposed to the ravages of trichinae. In answer
to those who combat this position by alleging that trichinae are not found
in the fat but in the muscle of swine, it is only necessary to say that there
is always more or less lean meat attached to leaf lard, and that in every
specimen of either oleomargarine or butterine that we have had examined
under the microscope, pieces of muscle have been discovered.
The question will naturally occur to these who have thought little
upon the subject, if caul fat and leaf lard are diseased, why can we eat
pork and beef with impunity? The answer is, that we thoroughly cook
our meats, and hence destroy all the animalculae which may be in them.
We do not cook our butter, and, therefore, take into the system whatever
of animalculaB our butter contains.
So rapidly has the business of manufacturing imitation butter increased,
that the market is filled with the vile compounds, which are sold as pure
butter, and it is pretty difficult to find genuine butter either on public or
private tables. Next to the liquor traffic, the business must be regarded
158 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
as the most unworthy in which men engage, and the public should leave
nothing undone to compel dealers to sell such products for just what they
are.
The manufacture of jewelers' or watchmakers' lathes in the United
States was commenced in Roxbury, Connecticut, about the year 1866 or
1867. This being the first departure from the old Swiss lathe that had
been heretofore universally used, it was necessarily of a crude design and
imperfect construction. However, it fulfilled the requirements of that period
and partially supplanted its predecessor; but the rapid advancement made
in the manufacture of watches soon suggested improvements in the tools
for their production and opened up a field in that branch of mechanics for
the study of the artisan, the result of which is the production of a lathe
and its appliances that are models of perfection in design and workman-
ship.
In December, 1879, in this city, preparations were begun for the
manufacture of this improved lathe and other tools for watchmakers' use.
Nine men and a superintendent labored industriously for some nine
months to make the fine tools necessary to construct these lathes.
These tools consist of bench lathes, parallel grinding machine, attach-
ments for taper grinding, standard gauges and an endless variety of small
special tools, all made with the greatest accuracy.
Fifty-five lathes have already been placed upon the market, and one
hundred and ten more are in course of construction and well advanced.
The beds and head and tail stocks are made of a fine . grade of cast iron,
free from sand spots. They are first planed and milled, then ground and
highlv polished and scraped to perfect surfaces, and then nickel plated.
The spindles and bearings are made of steel; they are first cut from the
bar and annealed; then bored and a rough cut taken off the outside.
Then they are again annealed and rebored and turned to size, leaving an
eighth of a thousandth of an inch to grind off from both spindles and
bearings after hardening, to make them an absolute fit. The pulleys on
the head spindle for driving the lathe are made of hard rubber and polished
to resemble ebony. The minor details, such as screws, nuts, etc., are
made of brass and are nickel plated. The different parts being made to
standard gauges, there need be no care taken to select them, but the
required parts may be taken promiscuously and put together to complete
the lathe. The finest mechanism is in the spring chucks. They are also
made of steel cut from the bar and put through two annealing processes,
the same as the spindles and bearings. They are drilled to receive
the different sizes of wire used in watchmaking, and the size of each
chuck marked on its face in fractions of a millimeter, varying in size from
three-fortieths to thirty-six-fortieths of a millimeter. The French measure-
ment is used here because a great many French supplies are used by the
watchmakers of this country. These chucks are first drilled, then sawed
in three sections to allow them to spring and clamp the work. They are
then reamed out perfectly true, hardened and afterward ground out with
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 159
diamond powder, highly polished and temper drawn on the screw end,
and are ready for market.
The old adage, "small beginnings make great endings," was never
more fully exemplified than in the case of the Singer & Talcott Stone
Company, of Chicago, one of the largest stone quarrying and cutting
establishments in the United States. In 1852 Horace M. Singer, then
a young man of twenty-nine years, with very little capital, but a large stock
of energy, commenced boating, with one canal boat, "spoil bank" stone
from the banks of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, at Lemont, and selling
it to the Illinois Central Railroad Company, for use in their breakwater
along the lake front. In 1854 he formed a partnership with the late Man-
cel Talcott, with whom he was associated in business until Mr. Talcott's
death in June, 1878. After working in "spoil bank" stone a short time,
Mr. Singer made an opening in a quarry which the cutting of the canal
had developed, and commenced on a small scale furnishing the celebrated
Lemont stone for the Chicago market. The business of the firm grew
with the city, until at the time of the great fire Singer & Talcott ranked
among the most prominent and substantial business firms of the city.
After the great fire a joint stock company was formed by consolidating
the firms of Singer & Talcott and Kavanagh, Merriman & Kimbell,
stone cutters, under the name of The Singer & Talcott Stone Company.
The works thus established are extensive and complete in all details. All
the latest improved machinery to facilitate labor, is made use of, most
of which was invented and patented by A. T. Merriman, the superin-
tendent of the company, and all of which was constructed under his
immediate supervision. The company's trade has extended over the
States of Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Missouri, Iowa and Wisconsin,
and large shipments have been made by the company to Montreal and
Toronto, Canada. The following named gentlemen constitute its officers:
H. M. Singer, President, the original founder of the company; A. T.
Merriman, Vice President and Superintendent, who has been connected
with the stone business of Chicago upwards of twenty-five years; C. B.
Kimbell, Treasurer, who began business in 1857, when a boy of seventeen,
with Singer & Talcott; E. T. Singer, Secretary, son of the original
founder, who entered the business when a boy from school fourteen years
ago. The stone work of many prominent buildings in Chicago, and
nine-tenths of all the stone sidewalks laid here and in St. Louis and Mil-
waukee, are from the works of this company. Its specialty is machine
dressed sidewalk stone, which has made Chicago celebrated for its fine
flag stone sidewalks. The company's quarries are located at Lemont,
Illinois, on the Illinois and Michigan Canal, and two steamers arid five
barges are required to transport their product to market. The Chicago
office and works are located on Franklin street, between VanBuren and
Harrison streets, occupying from number 304 to 320, with office at 316
Franklin street.
i6o
CYRUS HALL McCORMICK.
Among the large army of inventors, there are comparatively few
that the world cares anything about, for the reason that the individual
inventions which may be said to have revolutionized the world are, as
compai'ed to the whole, not numerous. Nor do inventors, as a rule,
achieve that success which they often merit, and which the world demands
as a condition of its recognition. Fortunately the great inventor and
manufacturer whose name is now before us, as not only a representative
Chicagoan, but a representative American, has found the world not only
ready to reward him for his genius, to which it acknowledges its indebted-
ness for the achievement of a complete revolution in its grandest industry,
but also to know more of one whose fame is co-extensive with civilization.
Cyrus Hall McCormick is the son of Robert McCormick and Mary
Ann Hall McCormick, a,nd was born in Rockbridge county, Virginia,
February i5th, 1809. His father was a native of Rockbridge, and his
mother a native of Augusta county in the same State, and were of Scotch-
Irish descent. The facilities for acquiring an education in those days
were extremely limited, and if a boy became educated, it was more
through the natural aptitude of a brilliant mind in reading lessons from
nature and artificial and mechanical surroundings than from any advan-
tages offered by the common schools. So far, however, as they were
able to develop the mind, they had the opportunity in the case of the
subject of this sketch, who obtained from them all the education which
they impaired. But he was making a more rapid progress outside of the
school than he could possibly make in it. Born on a far.m, and inheriting
from his father an inventive turn of mind, he very early in life saw that
agriculture was sadly in need of inventions to enable it to achieve its
highest possibilities; and when only fifteen years old, he gave some
evidence of what has since distinguished him by constructing a "cradle,"
which he himself used in the harvest field.
The elder McCormick was the inventor and patentee of several
valuable machines, among which were threshing, hydraulic, hemp-break-
in(T etc. In 1816 he devised a reaping machine with which he experimented
in the harvest of that year, but when so baffled and disappointed in his
experiments, he laid it aside and never experimented with it again till the
Summer of 1831. He then added some improvements to it, and again
tested its operation in a field of grain on his farm, when he became so
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 161
thoroughly convinced that the principle upon which it was constructed
could never be practically successful in cutting any promiscuous crop of
grain as it stands in the field that he at once determined to abandon all
further efforts at making it a success. The trouble with his machine was
that it sought to cut the grain as it advanced upon it in a body by a series
of stationary hooks placed along the front edge of the frame-work, hav-
ing as many perpendicular cylinders as hooks revolving over and against
the edge of the hooks, with pins arranged on the periphery of the cylin-
ders to force the stalks of grain across the edges of the hooks and so carry
the grain in that erect position to the stubble side of the machine, there
to drop it in a continuous swath. These different separations of the grain
at the different hooks along the front edge of the frame-work for such
subsequent delivery in swath as proposed, especially in a crop of tangled
grain, as, stated, were found to be entirely impracticable.
The son's first effort in the improvement of agricultural machinery
after the construction of his hand cradle, was applied to what was then
termed the "hillside plow," which resulted in a patent granted to him in
1831, and in the construction of a plow for being used on one side of
a hill by alternate furrows thrown on the lower side, the plow alternating
as a right or left-hand plow, being always changed from one to the other
at the end of each furrow. This plow was, however, superseded by
a very superior one invented by him, called the self-sharpening horizontal
plow, for which letters patent were granted to him in 1833. This latter
plow was simple, strong and durable, and did excellent work as well on
land essentially level as on hilly ground. And but for the fact that the
mind and efforts of the inventor became more absorbed in the pursuit
and improvement of the greater invention of his reaping machine about
this time, which actually prevented him from supplying the rising demand
for this plow, he believed it would have become, properly managed and
manufactured, a valuable and highly appreciated implement of husbandry,
being the first perfect self-sharpening plow ever invented.
The son, having observed the defects already mentioned in his father's
reaping machine, undertook the correction of the same, and the discovery
of a new principle of operation, by which the difficulties to be overcome
might be removed, and the desideratum of a successful reaping machine
given to the world.
This he succeeded finally in doing, and in 1831, when .but twenty-
two years old, a short time after his father had made the final trial of his
machine, Cyrus H. McCormick invented the machine which has made
his name so famous and conferred upon mankind such inestimable benefits.
After observing the character of the experiment made by his father's
.machine, he soon came to the conclusion that ripe grain standing as it is
usually found in a field in a more or less tangled state, could not be suc-
cessfully harvested without taking it as a body without the. separations
at different points along the cutting apparatus as done by his father's
machine, and it then occurred to him that to cut and save the grain prop-
162 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
erly as was done by the cradle then in use, a sufficient motion for that
purpose given to an edged instrument was only necessary and that in
advancing upon the body of grain to be cut by a machine, the requisite
motion in addition to the forward motion of the machine might be sup-
plied laterally by a crank attached to the end of a reciprocating blade.
This feature, which is the foundation of all reaping machines of the present
day, has remained essentially intact as invented by Mr, McCormick.
As noticed in the chapter on manufactures, very little was done in
the way of manufacturing the machine until 1840. After the invention
of the machine, improvements became necessary and were accordingly
made, and while it was thus being brought to perfection, Mr. McCormick
expressed a wish that his father would aid him to establish himself in
some business, to which the father responded by giving him a farm and
stocking it. It is not a cause of wonder, however, viewed in light of the
fact that the world has been none too large for the exercise of his genius
and energy, that one year on the farm was sufficient to satisfy the son
with the restricted routine of such a life. An opportunity was presented
to engage in the iron- smelting business, which Mr. McCormick embraced,
believing that it would furnish a broader field for the exercise of his
ambition and that it promised larger profits. The panic of 1837, how-
ever, came, in the midst of which his partner mortgaged his own private
property to his family friends and left the smelting interest and Mr.
McCormick to do as best they could. Financial ruin now stared him
in the face, but with that unbending honesty which has distinguished the
great inventor through all his life, he applied all his capital to the extin-
guishment of his debts.
Now he began to give his whole attention to the introduction of his
invention into general use. His first patent was granted in 1834. In 1845
he removed to Cincinnati for the purpose of establishing himself there,
and during that year he obtained a second patent for several valuable
improvements. In 1846-7-8 his machine was manufactured by parties
in Brockport, New York, who paid him a royalty. Additional patents
were granted for still more valuable improvements in 1847 and 1858.
With that keen foresight which has made Mr. McCormick a brilliantly
successful business man, he was among the first to see the advantages
which Chicago possessed for becoming the center of the business of the
West, and accordingly he removed here in 1847, an^ while free to
acknowledge all that Chicago has done for him, he finds Chicago
enthusiastic in acknowledgment of what he has done for her. In 1859
the Honorable Reverdy Johnson, in an argument before the Commissioner
of Patents, said that the McCormick reaper had already "contributed an
annual income to the whole country of fifty-five millions of dollars at
least, which must increase through all time." The truth of this state-
ment is patent, and in the presence of it the indebtedness of Chicago to
her illustrious citizen, its inventor, is equally so.
The business of manufacturing the reaping machine, which it has
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
163
taken so many years to perfect, had scarcely got under full headway
when the original patents expired, and their renewal, under the circum-
stances, was very unreasonably refused at the Patent Office and by
Congress. Mr. McCormick has therefore been compelled from quite an
early day in the history of his inventions to compete with the results of
his own thought and ingenuity, and has been deprived of the protection
which has been granted without an exception to other inventors who
have made valuable discoveries for the benefit of the country. This
crowning injustice to Mr. McCormick has to a great extent resulted from
the avaricious propensity of a grasping public, in appropriating to itself
the whole benefit of its working, instead of that reasonable proportion
to the inventor which the laws of the country designed, as not only
a right but a stimulus to the adventurous inventor, in that indomitable
perseverance which is necessary to the accomplishment of great achieve-
ments, coupled as they are with great hazard and responsibility.
With dauntless courage he pressed forward against the unusual
opposition, until he has had the proud satisfaction of seeing his machines
acknowledged as the best manufactured. He has been the champion in
every contest upon the field of battle in which his machine has ever been
engaged, beginning with a trial of his machine against Obed Hussey's
machine in 1843, at Richmond, Virginia, before a jury of judges appointed
by the spectators upon the field, and as evidence of his triumph he holds
the gold medal of the American Institute given in 1849; the only prize,
the grand council medal, given at London in 1851; the grand gold medal
given at Paris in 1855; the grand prize gold medal given at London in
1862; the silver medal, the highest prize, awarded at a field trial in Lan-
cashire, England, in 1862; the grand gold medal given at Hamburg in
1863; the grand prize given at Paris, in 1867, the highest honor of that
great exposition, together with the decoration of the Cross of the Legion
of Honor; two grand gold medals given at Vienna in 1873; two bronze
medals, the highest prizes given at Philadelphia in 1876; the grand gold
medal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, in a competitive
trial of self-wire-bipding harvesting machines, in 1878; the only grand
prize given for harvesting machines at Paris, in 1878, together with the
decoration of officer of the Legion of Honor, with the election by
the French Institute as member of the Academy of Sciences in the
department of Rural Economy, as having done more for the cause of
agriculture than any other living man.
These triumphs were the results of hard fought battles, in which the
competing machines were not always the strongest arm of the enemies*
line, but unreasonable prejudice was. At the World's Fair in London
in 1851, before the trial which resulted in a grand victory for Mr. McCor-
mick's reaper, the London TIMES characterized the machine as "a cross
between an Astley chariot, a wheelbarrow and a flying machine." This
expression of ridicule voiced the foreign sentiment which met Mr.
McCormick at this first international exhibition, but his victory was so
164 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
absolute that this same jeering paper pronounced the reaper "the most
valuable article in the exhibition, and of sufficient value alone to pay the
whole expense of the exhibition." Thus, through difficulties that would
have disheartened a less determined man, he pressed steadily forward,
giving battle to all who offered battle, until the world freely acknowledged
him to be the inventor of not only the first, but also of the best reaping
machine.
But Mr. McCormick's fame is not wholly that of an inventor,
although very naturally as an inventor he is best known. A mind like
his, strong, brilliant and practical, is not satisfied to be confined even to
the broad field of enterprise which his invention and manufacture of such
a universally useful machine as the reaper afforded. It must grasp the
popular questions which agitate humanity, and take sides according to
its conception of right, justice and patriotism. Following this most
natural law, Mr. McCormick has not been a dim light in American
politics. Being a Democrat in his political belief, he has been high in
the councils of the Democratic party, and his name has been mentioned
in connection with the highest office in the country. As a member of
the National Democratic Convention at Baltimore, his counsel was in
opposition to the dismemberment of the party, and that it was wise, his
party have since had abundant evidence. In 1864 he was the candidate
of the Democratic and conservative voters of his district for Congress
and although failing of election, the contest was the most vigorous ever
known in a congressional campaign in the district. For years he has been
a member of the State and National Committees, of the Democratic
party, being chairman of the State Central Committee in 1876, when his
friend, Samuel J. Tilden, was a candidate for the presidency.
In religious and educational affairs Mr. McCormick has taken a
prominent and self-sacrificing part. The Theological Seminary of the
Northwest — an institution which was founded and munificently endowed
by him — a professorship which he endowed in Washington College,
Virginia, another professorship which he endowed in the Union Theo-
logical Seminaiy of Virginia, and benefactions to other religious societies
and institutions will commemorate his fame and wisely discriminating
beneficence in a more enduring form than if embodied in marble monu-
ments. Grounded in the Presbyterian faith, his money has been freely
expended in extending the influence of that denomination, and no man
is held in higher esteem by the church for which he has done so much.
"During his eventful struggle.," says another biographer, "on many
fields of ardent and painful rivalry, Mr. McCormick remained single
until 1858. He then married a daughter of Melzar Fowler, an orphan
niece of Judge E. G. Merrick, of Detroit, a highly gifted and accom-
plished lady, whose elegant and kindly attractions grace her hospitable
mansion."
In a biographical sketch like this, it is impossible to do justice to
a subject so eminently worthy of an entire volume, and which in the
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 165
distant future the biographer will select as among the most glorious
examples of human success and grandeur, and will clothe the details of
a life which has been of such incalculable value to mankind with an
eloquence of expression which admiration for greatness and usefulness
always generates. A subject like this never lacks biographers, and leav-
ing for others to complete the imperfect record here outlined, it is but
just to say that the summary of the life of Cyrus Hall McCormick is:
Great in invention and manufacture; indomitable in energy and enter-
prise; patriotic in citizenship; generous in spirit; a friend to education
and religion, and a public benefactor who has made the world better and
happier.
1 66
HORACE M. SINGER.
The subject of this sketch, Horace M. Singer, was born at Schenec-
tady, New York, October ist, 1823, and is the son of John V. Singer,
who was an extensive and well known contractor on public works, and
of Annie Collins, a lady of many and superior attributes of mind and heart,
who, after battling with the hardships of pioneer life for many years, still
survives — at the age of eighty-one years — residing at Lament in the
enjoyment of a beautiful evening of life. In 1824 the family removed
to Conneaut, Ashtabula county, Ohio, where it remained for about twelve
years, when it left Ohio for Illinois, settling at Lockport, October 315!,
1836, and residing there for many years.
It is scarcely necessary to allude to the fact that a frontier life afforded
our subject little opportunity for acquiring a book education, and that all
he obtained was procured in the primitive district school at his Ohio
home. The development of new countries drafts into active service the
physical energy of both the young and old who may be found among
the advance guards of civilization, leaving little time and furnishing but
limited means for scholastic culture. The school-house, college and the
church lift their walls only after the fathers and the children have cleared
the woodlands and adorned the prairies, marked out the village and laid
the foundation of the city. In this grand metropolis of the West, with
its magnificent school structures, and other educational resorts — in this
richly developed West, amidst whose flowers and harvest fields, hamlets
and towns, school-houses and colleges, so thickly dot the splendid picture,
that their shadows lie softly over the entire whole, the finger marks of the
brave pioneer, who neglected self-comfort and was compelled to neglect
the education of his own children, are found upon the basis of all the
glory. For us who have come after, and whose children, even at public
expense, are provided with facilities for acquiring a polished education,
he and his toiled and developed amidst primitive rudeness. Through
such an experience was passed the boyhood of him of whom we write;
but his life and acquirements, like those of the vast majority of Chicago's
prominent men, have fortunately demonstrated the fact that education
may be obtained otherwise than in the schoolroom, and that however
limited his early opportunities, success is within the reach of every young
man possessed of natural ability and industrious habits. These, with
a limited education, comprised the capital with which Horace M. Singer
• •.; . -. - -!
' •'•'•'";.•
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 167
began life. While yet a mere boy he gave indications of the energy of
character which was to distinguish the future man, by obtaining a team
and doing a general teaming business on his own account, carrying for
about a year, passengers and goods for a distance of a hundred and fifty
miles west and south of Chicago across the roadless prairies, and through
a very sparsely settled country. But an occupation of such character was
not sufficient to satisfy even his boyish enterprise and ambition, and while
he labored with that devotion to present duty which has been the con-
spicuous element of his life, he was eagerly watching for an opportunity
to step into a sphere where the forces of his nature could find fair play.
Nor was he long compelled to wait. A position offering in the Engineer
Corps of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, he accepted it, proving him-
self so efficient that before he attained his majority he was promoted to
the position of Superintendent of Repairs on the canal, which position
he held until 1852, when he resigned for the purpose of engaging in the
real business of his life — stone quarrying and stone manufacturing and
dealing, in which he has continued to the present time, building up an
immense business and establishing himself at the head of one of the
largest stone companies in the world. At the very basis of the great Singer
& Talcott Stone Company, the enterprise of Mr. Singer is discerned as
the chief corner stone, a fact which has afcvays been gracefully acknowl-
edged by the company thorough his continued presidency of the corporation
from its organization until the present time. Were he indebted for
prominence alone to the fact of being the founder of this vast enterprise —
which is so intimately connected with the architectural splendor of Chi-
cago,' and the elegance of our streets, to say nothing of its position among
the great manufacturing interests of the city — it would entitle him to an
enviable degree of regard by those who are appreciative of the beauty
of this metropolis.
But Mr. Singer has a much broader claim upon public attention than
that which arises from the connection of his private enterprise with the
history of Chicago. Since his advent here — in 1853 — he has been, in
the truest sense, a public spirited citizen, always subordinating himself
and his business to the public good. Besides being identified in a business
capacity with the majority of the public building enterprises of the city,
he was the chairman of the building committee of the Central Music
Hall, and as a member of the Board of County Commissioners — to which
position he was elected after the fire of 1871 — he was chairman of the
building committee having in charge the erection of the County Court
House on the North Side; in 1866, also, he was a member of the General
Assembly of the State of Illinois, and he has been a stockholder and
director of the First National Bank of Chicago since its organization, in
all of which positions he has performed his duties with the strictest
integrity and with an ability that challenges the warmest admiration.
His impulses and efforts, in short, have always been of the highest char-
acter, and for the benefit of his country and the city in which he has made
i68 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
his manhood's achievements. A more sturdy patriotism than his, during
the war of the rebellion, was not found in the North. Originally a
Douglas Democrat, like the great man he followed, he early raised his
voice for the preservation of the American Union, and joining the Repub-
lican party, contributed a Jarge amount of time and money to the support
of the government in its time of need; and he has been conspicuously
identified with this political party ever since the war. In deeds of unosten-
tatious benevolence, also, he has been prominent whenever the good of the
community or of individuals plainly demanded it. The church nearest
his residence, regardless of denomination, has always been sure of whatever
reasonable contribution it assessed upon him, and the Methodist and
Congregational churches, from their locations, have principally been the
recipients of his bounty. Of any cause for the benefit of mankind which
commended itself to his judgment, he has always been a modest but liberal
patron.
Mr. Singer was married at Lockport, Illinois, April 6th, 1847, to
Harriet A. Roberts, daughter of T. T. Roberts, Ex-Sheriff of Niagara
county, New York, and a most interesting family has sprung from
the union, consisting of three sons — Edward T. Singer, now thirty-three
years of age, and secretary of the Singer & Talcott Stone Company,
with which company he has been connected from boyhood; Charles
G. Singer, thirty-one, residing in New York city, and Walter H. Singer,
twenty-four, and in the employ of the company of which his father is
president.
Such are the outlines of a life that has been a continuous record
of industry, integrity and usefulness, and that is closely interwoven with
the history of Chicago. In all respects Mr. Singer is a self-made man,
and in the enjoyment of his fortune and influence they must appear to
him doubly precious, as he contemplates that what lie has and is he has
himself created. His modest beginning teaches the lesson of industry
and economy, and his achievements are a glorious tribute to the worth
'of unsullied character and a reasonable ambition. It is to such men who
while carving out the pathway to personal success, through discouraging
obstacles, have left in their footprints monuments to their matchless enter-
prise, that this great city is indebted for its existence, its influence and
magnificence.
169
ROBERT HILL.
In the subject of the following biography, we find a man whose life
was an unusual illustration of amiable traits (of character, attractive per-
sonal virtues and talents and remarkable business success. Indeed it is
seldom that a man in the quiet pursuits of business and in the discharge
of the every day duties of life, is enabled to so deeply impress his own
character upon the community, and to win such universal esteem because
of the possession of a richly endowed mind and noble nature, as Robert
Hill succeeded in doing. In glancing over the record of his life, it soon
makes the impression that he was what would be called an unusually
strong man, and yet so perfectly balanced that although ruggedness of
character stands out in charming prominence, the gentler traits are never
obscured and never weakened. In business he bore himself with that
commanding dignity and unbending integrity which are sometimes
thought to exclude regard for those delicate obligations of life which
men who are impressed with the truth that human existence has other
objects than the accumulation of riches, are wont to recognize. This is
not always true, however; and with Mr. Hill it certainly was not. He
was delicately sensitive to the claim of the world upon him for sympathy,
charity and encouragement; and, perhaps, this truth cannot be better
established than by reference to the fact that he was always deeply inter-
ested in young men struggling for a start in life, and that many such owe
their success to his pecuniary assistance and fatherly advice. In every
relation of life he was a faultless pattern. As husband, father, brother,
son and friend, as well as a business man, his life was without a shadow
to mar its perfect beauty and consistency. Hardly could his character
be more faithfully portrayed than the pen of an intimate friend painted
it in a letter of condolence to Mrs. Hill, upon the death of her honored
husband. Said this friend: "Consider that life is not to be measured by
length of days, but by deeds; then you can feel that his harvest of years
was ripe and ready for the gleaner, for it has been said of Mr. Hill, 'he
was everybody's friend.' Where can you find a more Christ-like trait
of character? * * * * Gather your little family around
you, and may the vacant place be a reminder to them of him whose pure
integrity, gentle affability and unostentatious charities endeared him to
many friends and now make his memory blessed." Such a tribute is the
grandest that can be paid to human life, and it is of such a life that it is
170 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
the fortune of the biographer to write. Having, too, been the artificer
of his own fortune, working his way from a humble beginning to a posi-
tion of honor and affluence, the perusal of a truthful sketch of his career
can but be beneficial to any young man who is seeking encouragement
in the midst of unfavorable surroundings, and longs to make himself
felt upon the world.
Robert Hill was the son of Miles Hill and Mercy Robinson, and
was born in the town of Cooper, in the State of Maine, in the year 1821.
The father was a native of the Green Mountain Stale, but early removed
to the State in which our subject was born, settling near Calais, Wash-
ington county, where he combined the life of a farmer and rural hotel
keeper, and where his son received such education as the common school
afforded, and the foundation of his subsequent sterling character. Prob-
ably here, too, his mind was first inclined toward the business in which
in after life he achieved such signal success and made his name familiar to
the traveling public. Soon after attaining his majority, however, he went
into the hotel business at Baring, near Calais, in Maine, in which he remained
until 1849; but the East did not offer such opportunities for the exercise
of his business abilities as they demanded, and in the Fall of that year
he decided to come into the broad West which has attracted so much
talent from the older sections of the world. Accordingly he disposed
of his business in his native State, and started for the then promising
Territory of Wisconsin. Determining, also, to change the character of his
business, he purchased, before leaving, a stock of goods such as are usually
found in a country store, and with these landed at Sheboygan, whence
he started with his mercantile effects in a wagon, for Fond du Lac county,
in which he opened a store. At the expiration of three years, however,
he concluded that his success was not commensurate with the sacrifices
that frontier life necessitates, and disposing of his interests in his new
home, he returned to the scenes of his childhood, more, however, for the
purpose of better fitting himself for a contented residence in the midst
of dawning civilization in these regions than for the purpose of showing
his dissatisfaction with his estimate of Western opportunities for the
growth of a young man in influence and affluence. Indeed, his faith in
the West was not at all shaken. He, perhaps, very properly concluded
that his selection of a location had not been the most fortunate, and with
his acquired knowledge of the comparative merits of different locations,
he went East with two determinations — one was to marry and the other
to return and settle in Chicago. The life of a bachelor, in those days,
was an irksome and a lonely one in the West, and to one with the fine
sensibilities of Mr. Hill it was unendurable.
Soon after his return home, therefore — in 1852 — he was married to
Sarah Woodcock, the estimable lady who survives him. After his mar-
riage, with his young wife he came to Chicago, arriving here in the
Spring of 1853, with but a small capital, except the enterprise, energy
and self-reliance which his previous experience and nature had given
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 171
him, and the encouragement, advice and support of a wife who proved
herself the noblest and most loving of women. With this priceless
capital he began life in the city in which his name will be as lasting as
the city itself. His first business adventure was the proprietorship of the
Lake Street House, a rather pretentious though small brick structure on
the northeast corner of Lake and Franklin streets. Here he did a fair
business, securing a due share of the travel which had then set toward
Chicago, for something over a year. But this house being entirely too
small for both his ambition and his enterprise, he disposed of his lease
and other interests in it, and leased the Clarendon House, a comparatively
fine brick structure on Randolph street, between what is now Fifth
avenue and Franklin street. This he enlarged, refitted and furnished in
excellent style, and a successful business repaid him for his enterprising
spirit. His popularity as a landlord now began to spreaU beyond the
accommodations which he could furnish, and finding it necessary to
enlarge his facilities, in 1857 he bought out the Garden City House, on
the corner of Madison and Market streets, where the immense wholesale
house of Marshall Field & Company now stands. This was a large
four-story brick hotel of seventy-five rooms. Here he remained for
seven years. But the location and surroundings did not please, and he
determined to secure a more favorable and central point, which he did
in 1864, by purchasing the lease and franchises of the Matteson House,
on the northwest corner of Randolph and Dearborn streets, and which
was in the very heart of the business center of the city, forming, with
the Sherman and Tremont Houses the trio of hotels which divided
the first-class business for several years previous to the great fire. Upon
taking possession of this house Mr. Hill made extensive repairs, and
by leasing adjoining buildings increased its capacity until the hotel con-
tained a hundred and thirty good rooms, and was kept in the excellent
style for which the proprietor will ever be remembered as maintaining.
Indeed, the house, under his management, became the most popular and
profitable hotel in the West; and in 1866 he, With Mr. M. O. Walker,
purchased the property for one hundred and thirty thousand dollars.
Mr. Hill was thus the proprietor and half owner of one of the best
and most successful hotels in the country at the time of the great fire. That
dreadful calamity, however, swept the Matteson House out of existence,
and the enterprising proprietor found himself suddenly bereft of business
and a place of business. But more fortunate than many of those who
suffered similarly, his enterprise had rewarded him with a beautiful home
on the corner of Washington and Wood streets, and that was safe. Still
the blackened ruins of his hotel would have been disheartening to a less
plucky man, especially as the condition of the companies in which he was
insured did not allow him but one-third of his insurance. It need not be
stated at this point of this sketch, however, that Mr. Hill was not dis-
heartened. He went ahead as if destiny carried him ; but destiny carries no
one. It is the forces within that make what we sometimes call destiny.
173 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
With his usual keen perception, he decided that a hotel farther south
would meet the requirements of the public better than a house on the old
location. Accordingly he disposed of the Matteson House property in the
burnt district, and securing the land on the corner of Wabash avenue and
Jackson street, built the present elegant Matteson House, of which he
was the proprietor at the time of his death.
Mr. Hill died March 4th, 1877, mourned bv the people of Chicago, who
recognized in him a citizen that could not well be spared, and by thou-
sands who had become familiar with his character through patronage of
the house, which his management made so popular. Connected with
the Union Park Congregational Society, to which he was a liberal
patron, the words of the pastor officiating at the funeral were a most
touching tribute to the worth of one whom in pastoral relations he knew
intimately. '
Mr. and Mrs. Hill had seven children born unto them — two daugh-
ters and five sons. Both of the daughters are dead, Laura dying in
infancy and Ada when six years old. The children surviving are named
Charles, Horace, George, Webster and Edwin, and are all proving them-
selves worthy of the noble parentage which is theirs.
MANGEL TALCOTT.
Seldom has a life developed and closed more satisfactorily than that
of Mancel Talcott. A character of such strength and symmetry as his
always leaves its impress upon a community. Men achieve brilliant suc-
cess in some special avenue of life, and their victories are permitted to
shadow their defeats and their defects; they live with the perfect side of
their characters to the world, and die behind the colossal appearance of the
structure. In some one feature of human character they are dazzlingly
brilliant, while in all others they are conspicuously lacking. It may be
the reputation of a warrior, statesman, orator, poet, philosopher or philan-
thropist that attracts the admiration of mankind and commands a moment's
homage when the funeral cortege announces that the life is gone out. The
marble shaft may proclaim the reverence cherished for the valor of a
soldier, the fidelity of a* martyr, the founder of a government or the savior
of a nation, but none of these rise to the dignity of manhood's possibilities.
It is only occasionally that we find a character that is roundly and magnifi-
cently developed; that is an impregnable fortress against the dangers that
threaten society, an unyielding pillar to government in every emergency,
an ornament and example in business, a light and a comfort in the home
and a monument to the fullest development of the highest virtues that
ever adorn the human heart. Such a character in an eminent degree was
possessed by the subject of this sketch. As a husband he was gentle and
devoted; as a friend kind and steadfast; in business precise, energetic
and honorable; as an official stern and unflinchingly honest, and as a citizen
was ever found where the profoundest loyalty and the welfare of society
naturally directed. In every position, private or public, to which duty
summoned him, during an exceedingly active life, he showed himself to
have been among the highest minded of men. In manner he was some-
times gruff, but this was the result of the absolute practical view which
he took of life, and which characterized all his acts, whether pri^te or
public, and which extended even to the dispensing of his large charities.
If there was a duty to be performed he proceeded to discharge it in the
simplest and most direct way, and if the duty happened to be the denuncia-
tion of wrong or wrong-doing, his language was so plain and emphatic
that it frequently earned for him the reputation of being rough. But
a kinder or more sympathetic heart than his never throbbed. Human
misfortune always found it ready to respond promptly, but with conscien-
174 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
tious and characteristic unostentation to its pleadings for aid. Charitable
institutions were the frequent recipients of his bounty, and amidst all his
own brilliant success he never forgot the divine injunction: "The poor
always ye have with you." His charities, however, were of much broader
scope than is here intimated. Any instrumentality for the elevation and
improvement of men, was sure to find a substantial friend in Mancel Talcott.
When the Church of the Redeemer — the Universalist Church at the corner
of Washington and Sangamon streets — with which he was connected,
was struggling to release itself from debt, he quietly handed in his check
for five-sixths of the amount — one of the many instances of his liberality
of a similar character. His nobility of nature and gentleness of heart,
however, was evidenced not alone through his open handed benevolence.
His wise counsel and considerate treatment of the young, with whom he
had intercourse, has doubtless been the foundation of many useful lives,
and has endeared his memory to some who, now at middle age, are help-
ing to bear the burdens of united citizenship. Among such can be found
those who will bow the head reverently as the name of their benefactor
is spoken, and say : "He was a father to me." It is simply a grand life
that can thus engraven itself upon the world in such bold relief.
Mancel Talcott was born in Rome, Oneida county, New York,
October i2th, 1817, and was the son of Mancel and Betsey Talcott. His
childhood was spent in the county in which he was born, and the only
education he had for a start in life was what he obtained in the common
schools of that period; and this suggests the fact, so common in our
country, that the successful career of Mr. Talcott was the result of his
own personal exertions; in other words, that he was a self-made man. In
1834 he came to Chicago, a mere youth, but with a brave heart. The
Western country was just such an expanse of territory and presentation
of opportunities that such an enterprising spirit craved. At that time
Illinois was the frontier whose invitation to come was only to the stout-
hearted and the devotedly industrious. Young Talcott fully comprehended
this, and with a strong physical constitution and two willing hands as the
extent of his capital, he bade farewell to the home of his boyhood and
started for the future metropolis of the prairies. Reaching Detroit, he
left the boat, and on foot crossed the Peninsula of Michigan to the spot
on which he made such an enviable record. Having been reared upon
a farm, it was natural that upon his arrival here, his thoughts should have
been directed toward agriculture, especially as the town at that time gave
faint promise of becoming a great commercial center. Accordingly he
settled upon a farm in Park Ridge, where he remained from 1841 to 1850
when attracted by the developments in California, he went thither, spend •
ing nearly two years on that western limit of the continent. But Chicago
was destined to be the place where he should achieve his life's success,
and he returned to his farm, not, however, v/ithout bringing with him
from the Golden State, a considerable fortune as the reward for his enter-
prise.
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. ij:
In 1854 he formed a copartnership with Horace M. Singer, and the
two — who were warmly attached to each other — founded the Talcott &
Singer Stone Company, which developed into a concern of large dimen-
sions, and with which Mr. Talcott was identified from the date of its
organization to the time of his death. In addition to his business in this
connection, he was one of the founders of the First National Bank of
Chicago, of which he was a director as long as he lived. He was, also,
for several years president of the Union Stock Yards National Bank, and
president of the Excelsior Stone Company, besides being connected with
other important local business enterprises.
Politically Mr. Talcott was a strong Republican, and as such was
elected an alderman in 1863, serving one year. In 1865 he was again
elected to the council, in which he remained for two years. In Novem-
ber, 1871, when the old Board of Supervisors went out of existence, and
the first Board of County Commissioners was elected, he was chosen
a member of that body. Soon after his election he was urged to accept
the position of Police Commissioner, made vacant by the resignation of
T. B. Brown, and reluctantly consenting, he was elected by the County
Board, December I4th, 1871, resigning his membership of that body on
the same day. He was a member of the Police Board until December,
1872, acting as its president, for which position he was selected imme-
diately upon his becoming a member.
After his retirement as Police Commissioner, he kept aloof from
politics, although his name was frequently mentioned in connection with
public office, notably with the Mayoralty. In fact, Mr. Talcott was.
never a politician. He possessed none of the elements of the successful
political aspirant. He was too honest and straightforward to permit the
substitution of policy for an open declaration of principles upon all
occasions and under all circumstances. He was not a time-server in any
sense, but one of those grand characters which in times of peace and quiet
less meritorious persons easily distance in the political arena, but to which
the community instinctively turn and cling when the storms rage and
dangers threaten.
Mr. Talcott died June ^th, 1878, leaving a widow, whose maiden
name was Mary H. Otis, and whom he married at Park Ridge, October
25th, 1841. Although their union was never blessed with children, they
educated several and reared them to maturity. Mrs. Talcott is a lady
of superior character, and was a charming light in her husband's rugged
pathway to success. Like her husband^ she is of noble nature and gener-
ous impulses, and not only took supreme delight in his sympathies for the
unfortunate, and his expenditures for the promotion of the public interests,
but since his death has been the dispenser of large and most commendable
charity. In Central Park stands an elegant fountain which was a gift
from Mrs. Talcott to the Illinois Humane Society, and intended as a monu-
ment to the memory of her husband, the warm sympathies of whose
large heart extended even to the dumb animal. A more fitting memorial
176 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
could scarcely have been devised, and an admirer of him whose nobility
of heart the fountain commemorates, has fitly sung:
"Softly the spray is falling,
Over this honored and cherished name;
And the rays of the, pulsing sunset,
An aureola of fame;
Hover like a benediction,
Above this cenotaph of purity,
Emblematic of a life that was spent,
In boundless humanity.
Not only a friend to mankind,
But also a friend to the brute;
Helping those who could not help themselves,
Speaking for the speechless mute;
This voice which plead for humanity's cause,
Is silent, and we hear no more,
Save the still small voice in the fountain spray,
Like an angel's whisper from the other shore."
In the death of Mancel Talcott, the city of Chicago lost a citizen
of unsurpassable worth; society was deprived of a safeguard that was as
reliable as the rocks, and humanity was compelled to give up a friend
whose love for the human race was boundless and unselfish. He rests
amidst the beauties of Rose Hill, respected and loved by all who are
familiar with his character; but although the lips are silent, the influence
of his life will never cease to be felt while Chicago has an existence.
MARTIN NELSON KIMBELL.
Martin Nelson Kimbell, one of the oldest, most prominent and
respected citizens of Chicago, is the son of Abel Kimbell and Maria
Powell, and was born at Stillwater, Saratoga county, New York, January
24th, 1812. His father was of English and Scotch, and his mother of
English Quaker and Dutch descent, and our subject has thus inherited the
sturdy principles of a richly endowed ancestry, which have combined to
form the character that has been the foundation of a life of honor and
usefulness. The first six years of Mr. Kimbell's life were passed in his
native county, the following eight years in Bradford county, Pennsylvania,
and the balance of his minority in Tioga county, New York. Until he
was sixteen years of age he enjoyed no school privileges whatever; but
from that time until he attained his majority he attended school in the log
school house of those primitive times, three months in every year, and
from the age of twenty-one to twenty-two he was uninterruptedly in
school for a year. During the nine months of the year he was out of school
he was engaged at hard work, either on the farm or lumbering in the
Woods. After finishing the continuous year of schooling, he entered
Bpon the business of teaching in Tioga county, which he continued until
he determined to seek the New West, with its dangers, its hardships and
its opportunities. On the eighth of September, 1836, he started from his
home on foot for Buffalo; thence he went to Detroit, and from there
walked to St. Joseph, Michigan, reaching Chicago after a hard journey,
which consumed twenty-seven days of time. Upon his arrival his entire
pecuniary resources were represented by five dollars and three shillings,
a capital which even under far more favorable circumstances would have
given little hope to its possessor of establishing himself in successful
business. But if he had little money he possessed an abundance of energy,
the spirit of ambition and a robust physical constitution, and these served
him well in the existing emergency. In less than two years from the
hour of his setting foot in Chicago we find him in possession of and living
upon a farm in what is now known as the town of Jefferson, one mile
northwest of the city limits, and v/here he has resided ever since. In
connection with his farming operations he was engaged in contracting
and jobbing until 1870, five years of which time he was superintendent
of the Northwestern Plank Road Company, building twenty-two miles
of that road, principally on Milwaukee avenue. He also opened and built in
i^8 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
1855 the first plank road through Lake View. He was also engaged for
a time in banking and in the tanning business.
Mr. Kimbell has held various town and school offices, and being
a member of the Board of Supervisors in 1850-1, he was connected with
the construction of the original stone court house. At the present writing
he is president of the Union Hide and Leather Company, vice president
of the Joliet Mound Company, and director in the National Bank of Illinois;
and in every position, public or private, that he has occupied, his basis
of action was the belief that permanent prosperity could be best secured
by honesty, industry and economy; and his success in life, as well as the
universal regard in which he is held by his fellow citizens, attest the wis-
dom of this creed. In the midst of a competence accumulated through
his own untiring industry, with a home that has been built and beautified
by himself, and possessed of an untarnished name, his fidelity to principle
has borne such a beautiful and bountiful harvest, that the young man
seeking a pattern for life need go no further. Few, perhaps, who will
read this sketch will ever be summoned to carve fortune and fame under
circumstances as unfavorable and discouraging as those which surrounded
our subject forty-four years ago; but should they be, there is no exclusive
proprietorship to the motto: honesty, industry and economy; nor is there
any reason why its adoption, either under unfavorable or favorable circum-
stances, should not result as grandly as in the case of Mr. Kimbell.
In deeds of charity, patriotism and humanity, Mr. Kimbell's life has
been exceedingly fertile. The Universalist denomination, with which he
is in sympathy, has been greatly favored by his bounty, he having con-
tributed, in proportion to his means, to build three Universalist churches
in Chicago. He devoted three years time and expended considerable
money to the care, comfort and encouragement of the Union soldiers in
the South, during the war of the rebellion, and all through his life he has
shown his readiness to respond, to the extent of his ability, to calls of duty
by the church, the State and mankind.
On the thirtieth of August, 1837, Mr. Kimbell was married to Sarah
A. Smalley, who came to Chicago at the same time he did. The marriage
ceremony was performed at Chicago, by Esquire Howe, whose office was
on Dearborn street, opposite the present Tremont House, and to reach
which the groom and bride were compelled to walk a single sixteen-foot
plank, which spanned a deep mud hole in front of the place. Eight
children have blessed this union : Charles B., forty-one years, now treas-
urer of the Singer & Talcott Stone Company, with which company he
has been connected for twenty-four years ; Julius Wads worth, forty years,
now living on the old homestead; Spencer Smalley, thirty-eight years, and
for twenty years prominently connected with the stone trade of Chicago;
Ann M. Stryker, thirty-six years, wife of Jacob Stryker, superintendent
of the Joliet Mound Company; Sarah Angeline, thirty-four years, now
residing at the old home; Frank A., thirty-two years, of Grinnell, Iowa;
Martin N., Jr., twenty-six years, who is carrying on the old farm; Edward
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 179
. C., twenty-four years, of Denver, Colorado. The three oldest sons served
with credit during the war, in Battery A, First Illinois Artillery, being
among the first to enlist for the defense of their country. Charles B. was
dangerously wounded at the battle of Shiloh, from the effects of which
he has never entirely recovered.
It would seem that a life which has been so eventful and successful
as the one we have been thus briefly sketching, must be regarded with
peculiar satisfaction by him to whom it belongs. But the most successful
men are wont to regret that they have not been more so, and doubtless
as noble a man as Mr. Kimbell is no exception to the rule. But in no
case were such feelings ever more groundless. His has been a life of
grand achievement, of lasting beneficial influence upon this community,
and of elevated example to mankind. Surrounded by an interesting and
promising family, at the old homestead on Christmas day — the one day
of the year on which a grand family reunion is always held at the Jefferson
farm — with a fortune, as Mr. Kimbell himself expresses it, of "a com-
fortable competence, every debt paid in full and twenty grandchildren,"
his name chiseled upon the growth of magnificent Chicago, and honored by
kindred and by all who are familiar with his character and achievements,
no man could find greater reason to be satisfied with himself, and to none
should the greetings of the merry Christmas bells,_proclaiming "peace on
earth good will toward man," be sweeter or diviner melody.
iSo
TREAT T. PROSSER.
Some one has said that there are few tasks more difficult than to
sketch the life of an inventor. The world is so jealous of innovation and
improvement upon established methods, so wedded to the customs of the
ages past, and withal so disinclined to recognize the brilliancy of more
practical genius, that the mechanical engineer who discovers deficiencies
in practical mechanics and supplies them, often goes to his grave unre-
warded even by the gratitude of the world he has benefited. He hears
the name of the warrior, the statesman, the poet and even the politician
sung in every household he enters or business mart he visits, but his own,
if mentioned at all, is, perhaps, in derision, and as that of one who is build-
ing castles without foundation and following the delusions of a dream.
The history of invention records that there has been a very general recog-
nition of such injustice and a most heroic submission to it upon the part of
inventors. Valuable innovators, while deeply feeling the lack of apprecia-
tion, have usually quietly adopted the feelings of Kepler, who said : "My
work is done; it can well wait a century for its readers, since God waited
full six thousand years before there came a man capable of comprehending
and admiring His work." Now and then, however, genius is so practical
and its fruits contrast so brilliantly with what has preceded, that it compels
recognition and homage. Happily this has been true of the subject of
this sketch. He has lived to see the results of his thought and mastery
of mechanics in daily operation in our machine shops, and in other positions
where the best class of machinery is in use.
Treat T. Prosser is the son of Potter A. and Eliza Prosser, and was
born in Avon, Livingston county, New York, January 22d, 1827. His
youth and early manhood were spent in his native State, and he was edu-
cated in the common schools, and at the Academy in West Avon, at which
he became a student after he had attained his majority. Always handy in
the use of tools, when only fourteen years old he was engaged in the
trade of a millwright, in which he became a proficient workman. But
while his hands were dilligently engaged in this business, and his mind
was grasping its details and necessities, his thoughts were wandering out
upon the whole domain of mechanical science, and he determined to enter
a higher and broader sphere of mechanical usefulness. This spirit has
actuated him through all his life; and his studies at the Academy were for
the purpose of better fitting him for a successful career in the path in
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 181
which he had decided to walk. From the young millwright has developed
an inventor of agricultural implements of great value ; of a superior system
of machinery for the manufacture of bolts; of universally recognized im-
provements upon steam engines; practical and widely used machinery for
pegging boots; of coal machinery; of the Prosser cylinder car — which
promises to revolutionize the system of transportation — and of other
mechanical devices which either are or will become, upon common princi-
ples of reasoning, of vast benefit to mankind.
Mr. Prosser came to Chicago in the Spring of 1851, and with the
exception of two years, which he spent in the Rocky Mountains, and a
short visit to Europe, he has lived here ever since. He was the first man
'to introduce the steam engine and the quartz mill in the Rocky Mountains.
The engine was constructed by him on this frontier of civilization of
material which had been forwarded from the East, the boiler being literally
built in that wild region. While in Europe he was elected a member of
the Society of Mechanics and Engineers of England and Scotland, an
honor which speaks much more distinctly of his merits as a mechanical
engineer than it is within the province of the pen to do.
The fire of 1871 marked Mr. Prosser as one of its victims, and like so
many others, he lost his well earned accumulations of years of enterprise.
With his pecuniary fortune the flames had played sad havoc, but the
energy which he so early manifested in life, and his sterling character
remained. With these he began life anew, and has enjoyed an eminently
satisfactory prosperity since recovering from the misfortune which he, his
fellow citizens and his city alike suffered.
Mr. Prosser's domestic life is as unostentatious as himself, but his home is
one of quiet elegance and contentment. His wife — whose maiden name was
Lucy J. Phillips, and whom he married at West Bloomfield, New York, in
the Fall of 1850 — is a lady whose character is reflected in the appointments
of the beautiful home over which she presides. Henry Blinn, a son, is as-
sociated with his father in business, and Mary, a daughter, is a young lady
whose presence is a sunbeam in an exceptionably happy family circle.
The honors of public office and their accompanying hardships have
always been at the option of Mr. Prosser. But he has been so closely
wedded to his profession that under ordinary circumstances he has refused
the responsibilities of official position. Once elected to the Illinois State
Board of Equalization of Taxes, he declined the honor. After the great
fire, however, he did accept the position of superintendent of the dis-
tribution of food to the destitute, first in district four, and afterward in
district five. He performed the duties of this position in such an excep-
tional manner that no word of complaint was ever uttered.
Thus closes this very deficient outline of Mr. Prosser's life. The
tyranny of limited space forbids a greater record of facts, which is a mis-
fortune to the reader, and especially to him who might find additional
features in a fully painted character and career like those which belong to
our subject, to teach that a humble boy, if gifted, can succeed in life.
1 82
HIRAM H, SCOVILLE.
The subject of this sketch was born in Litchfield county, Connecticut,
January 3d, 1 795, and when an infant was taken by his parents to Onon-
daga county, New York, where they settled on a farm near Syracuse.
His youthful days were spent in working on the farm in Summer and
attending school in Winter. On reaching his majority he determined to
engage in mechanical engineering, for which, as since shown, he was
peculiarly adapted. In accordance with this determination he entered a
foundry and machine shop in Syracuse, and during an apprenticeship
perfected himself in all the details of the business. In 1822, with two
other young men, he built a small steamboat which he put in practical
operation on Cazenovia lake; subsequently it was transferred to the Erie
canal, which had been completed a short time previous. As a financial
speculation this enterprise was not a success; and, at the request of the
State authorities, the engine was taken out and used in pumping brine
from the salt wells at Salina.
Mr. Scoville, in 1837, came to Chicago to superintend the construc-
tion of a marine engine for a large lake steamer — one of the floating
palaces that were the rage thirty-five or forty years ago; but before the
work was completed the financial panic that swept through the country
that year, caused a cessation of all building operations, and steamboat
building was among the first to succumb. As soon as the money strin-
gency abated, however, a smaller vessel, the James Allen, was built under
his supervision.
Subsequently he became a contractor on the Illinois and Michigan
canal, which was then in process of construction, in partnership with
Captain William H. Avery, and remained with it until work was
suspended on account of the financial troubles in which the State was
involved. He then resolved to make a permanent settlement in Chicago,
and with his son-in-law, P. W. Gates, established a large foundry and
machine shop, under the firm name of Scoville & Gates. He withdrew
from this partnership in 1848, and started in business with his sons, having
purchased a lot of William B. Ogden on the corner of Canal and Adams
streets, the present center of the new passenger depot of the Chicago,
Pittsburgh and Fort Wayne railway.
About this time the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad Company
commenced laying its track, and to the firm of Scoville & Sons was
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 183
awarded the contract for freight and passenger cars, the sample car having
been brought across the lake by vessel, as were the first two locomotives,
the "Pioneer" and "John Bull."
Messrs. Scoville & Sons contracted with the Galena and Chicago
Railroad Company for building a number of locomotives, the first
of which, the "Enterprise," being the first locomotive engine built west of
the Allegheny mountains, and was fully up to the standard of locomotive
engines of that date. In 1855 Mr. Scoville retired from active business,
leaving the enterprise he had so successfully established to his son, a
sketch of whose life follows. To Mr. Scoville belongs the credit of
many useful inventions, among them the cam motion for the self raking
reapers, the patent office records showing his patent as being the first in
that direction, and the same device has been used by all the manufactur-
ers of reaping machines to date. Mr. Scoville died March 28th, 1879,
having passed a busy and successful life, and having been one of the pi-
oneer settlers who laid the foundation of this city of a half a million peo-
pie
184
HIRAM H. SCOVILLE, JR.
The subject of this sketch is the son of Hiram H. Scoville, a sketch
of whose life immediately precedes, and of Mary Elizabeth Sherman. He
was born at Syracuse, in the State of New York, February i9th, 1833.
When four years of age he came with his parents to Chicago, and with
the exception of six years from 1860, during which time he was in Colo-
rado engaged in erecting and operating mining machinery, he has resided
here ever since. His education was obtained in the schools of the city,
and his successful life can be largely attributed to the training which his
naturally quick mind received under Chicago's fine educational system.
The son of one of the finest mechanical engineers that the West has
ever had, and possessed of natural abilities of a mechanical turn, he early
developed a taste and adaptation for his father's pursuit, and entered upon a
regular apprenticeship in which, he thoroughly perfected himself in the
details of the profession to which he has been devoted through life. For
seven years he was associated with his father and an older brother, under
the firm name of H. H. Scoville & Sons, in the manufacture of steam
engines and general machinery, and upon the retirement of his father from
active business he succeeded to the sole proprietorship of the Scoville Iron
Works, which he has since managed with signal success, increasing their
capacity as the spread of their fame increased the demand for the Scoville
machinery, until this pioneer establishment of its kind has become one of
the largest in the country.
Mr. Scoville was at one time a member of the firm of Charles Reissig
& Company, and while such he erected the iron reservoirs on the corner
of Monroe and Morgan streets and on Chicago avenue, which the city
built when water was first introduced, and to which refe^nce is made in
the chapter upon that subject. As already noticed in the sketch of Mr.
Scoville, Sr., the first locomotives built in Chicago were constructed by
the Scovilles, and these being under the immediate supervision of the sub-
ject of this sketch, their acknowledged excellence is something of which
he may justly feel proud. Being a pioneer locomotive builder of the
West, although yet a young man, few men can claim the honor of starting
a more important industry in Chicago.
In September, 1859, Mr. Scoville was married at Chicago to Eliza
M. Barnes, and has an interesting family of four children, Belle, twenty
years of age, Jessie, seventeen, Annie, eleven and Edna, three.
E. J. LEHMANN.
It4 is the enterprise and character of the citizen that enrich and
ennoble the commonwealth. Natural advantages may be never so many,
beautiful and easily available, yet without the throbbing of thought and
the touch of skill they will be like flowers blushing amidst the desolation
of a deserted ruin. The extensive commerce of Chicago, her palatial stores
and massive warehouses, her magnificent churches and school structures,
her railroads, parks and boulevards have not made the citizen, but the
citizen has created them. From individual enterprise has sprung all
the splendors and importance of this metropolis of the West; and in the
counting rooms of our merchants is found a large proportion of the men
and intellect that are advancing this great city to more imposing greatness,
and adding luster to the fame of our proud State and powerful nation.
What is conspicuously noticeable, too, among this class of our community,
is that they have carved fortune and fame from nothing except their own
strength of character and uprightness of action. Our greatest merchants
have developed from the humblest origins. From clerkships have
emerged the men who have built our most elegant edifices from the profits
of our grandest business enterprises, which they conceived and now con-
duct. Chicago is a self-made city, and those who have created it are
self-made men. No influence of birth or fortune has favored the archi-
tects of Chicago's glory. If the merchant has been prosperous his
prosperity may be solely attributed to that with which nature has endowed
him, and to none of the peculiar influences which operate in older portions
of the world to give a young man a start and to buoy him up all through
his business career. The history of human success has shown that only
in exceptional instances has natural ability, legitimately applied, failed of a
legitimate measure of achievement. Failures may have come, but they
were temporary; success may sometimes have been long postponed, but
the daybreak finally spread itself upon the gloom ; and in the entire history
of the world there is no clearer record of the fact that he who merits
victory will win it than is found in the history of Chicago.
The gentleman who is the subject of this sketch, and who is one of
our prominent and rising merchants, is no exception to the rule that has
been stated. Occupying an enviable position in the business circles of the
city, with a business that necessitates the occupancy of two large buildings
on one of the most prominent corners, and with a credit that is unques-
i86 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
tioned and unquestionable, he began life as a bell boy in a hotel, and was
serving in that capacity no longer ago than 1861. Twenty years have
made many marvelous changes in this country, but we doubt if any present
themselves to Mr. Lehmann in a more marvelous character than the rise of
the bell boy of 1861. At that early age, however, he developed the two
traits of character which have distinguished him in all his later life — strict
fidelity to the discharge of duty and an ambition to make his mark in the
world. With the vast majority of boys, in his situation, the former would
have been of much easier accomplishment than the latter. It is a brave
lad, who without influence or means, steps from the humble position of
bell boy, into the busy world and commences business for himself. Young
Lehmann, however, had the necessary courage to do it, and the necessary
energy to achieve success. First joining that interesting fraternity, the
bootblacks — from whose ranks have really come many of our representa-
tive men — the boy of a dozen years humbly commenced business for
himself. But this sphere was too limited, and he soon engaged in the
business of a general peddler. To those who knew his peculiarities, how-
ever, it was evident that these temporary schemes must be quickly
supplanted by something of a more permanent nature; and they were. In
1863 we find him, although still a boy, engaged in the jewelry business.
In this he continued until 1870, making considerable money, but meeting
with some reverses. Considering his age, however, his success was
certainly remarkable, and would have been impossible but for his extra-
ordinary natural endowments. In 1871 he entered upon the business of
buying and selling all kinds of merchandise, in which he is still engaged,
and which from a small beginning he has built up to immense proportions.
In his store, which he calls "The Fair," at the corner of State and Adams
streets, can be found almost any article that can be thought of, and of any
quality from fair to the best. No establishment in the entire city has a
larger number of visitors during business hours. Some go to buy and
others go to see, and from morning until night there is a throng oi
humanity passing in and out, being of itself- not the least interesting feature
of the place.
The young man who has thus risen from obscurity to prominence,
and from poverty to affluence, was born in Mecklenburg, Germany, the
twenty-seventh of February, 1849, and is the son of the late John Leh-
mann— who died in Chicago in the Spring of 1880 — and M. Belson.
When ten years of age he came with his parents to Chicago, and has
resided here ever since. His education was obtained in our public schools.
In 1870 he was married at Chicago to Augusta Handt.
We have thus sketched a life which is full of encouragement to the
O
millions of boys who have nothing but fine intellects and firm determina-
tion with which to begin life. Position, influence and affluence in a
country like ours are as readily within the reach of all as they have been
within that of E. J. Lehmann.
187
CHAPTER XII.
THE GREAT FIRE.
It is a magnificent picture that we' have been outlining and embellish-
ing in the plain statement of facts on the preceding pages. As we follow the
rapid transformations from nearly nothingness until a bewildering vastness
•of beauty, wealth and power are represented in the painting, even the dry
statistics of this volume read like an exaggerated but most entertaining
romance. Upon the already grand but modest picture of American civili-
zation and progress fifty years ago, Chicago was the touch of the artist's
brush upon the very outer edge, and if it did not appear disfiguring to those
who had so long been accustomed to look upon an unfinished picture as
perfect, it was probably thought to add nothing in the way of embellish-
ment. The beautiful cities of the East which had been even centuries in
maturing, could not conceive it possible that anything like themselves
•could spring into existence as if by the influence of a magic touch. In
this they were pardonable. America had been two centuries and more
in becoming what she was when Chicago was founded. She had slowly
built her Bostons, and New Yorks, and Philadelphias, and if she had not
•quickened her pace, and stimulated her thought, it would have been cen-
turies yet before the great West would have blossomed as it now does.
But she did both, and did them on this very spot. The picture was imbued
with freshness and new life, and it received these enlivening touches in the
shadow of Fort Dearborn. Although in the West, it was far enough
eastward to paint a rising sun upon the canvas, and to brighten with its
rays whatever was dull and somber in the picture, as well as to light up
the hills, valleys and plains to the westward and reveal their glorious
possibilities. The old picture was to become a new one. Bloom and
fragrance were to cover the mosses that a sterling but deliberate people
had permitted to crown the rocks; glistening harvests were to usurp the
possessions of the wild grasses and the forests; beauty was to spread itself
upon the deserts, and life was to light up the dark silent chambers of
•death. When? . Almost at once; arid the history of forty years from the
organization of the municipality of Chicago, proves that these results were
•achieved. But Chicago itself was the brightest and most wonderful of all
the achievements. It has grown to a metropolis. It grew with a dash,
.and did everything in the same way. Its undertakings were colossal, and
the world looked, wondered and admired, and concluded that whatever
•Chicago attempted, or whatever happened to it, must be of lofty character
i88 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
and stupendous proportions. But such an estimate of its characteristics
pertained to its prosperity alone. In the shadow of its greatness in
1871, serious misfortune was never contemplated. That adversity should
ever be as completely astounding as had been its development, was far from
the mind of the most fertile prophet of disaster. Yet on the ninth of
October, 1871, when the proud city was a desolate mass- of smoking,,
hissing, blackened and melted ruins, and its enterprising citizens depen-
dent upon the charity of a generous, sympathizing world for bread, one
could but exclaim: Here was beheld an unparalleled prosperity — here is.
beheld an unparalleled misfortune; from nothing to magnificence in a day
— from magnificence to nothing in a night.
The great conflagration which worked such a complete destruction as
to make such an exclamation appropriate, started in a small stable on De
Koven street, near the corner of Jefferson, in the West Division, on Sunday,.
October eighth, at nine o'clock in the evening. The cause was the smash-
ing of a kerosene lamp by the kick of a cow which was being milked. It
would be idle to censure the cow, if there were a disposition to do so, but
the milker who took the lamp into the stable merits all the censure that
any one or a community wishes to bestow, and it has already been very
great.
As if endeavoring to prepare the city for the awful visitation which
awaited it, what was then regarded as an extensive conflagration happened
on the night previous, and the. Sunday morning issues of the city papers
devoted columns to the details of a fire which inflicted a loss of a full million
dollars. This fire was in the West Division, and devastated the district
bounded by VanBuren street on the south — where it started — Adams
street on the north, the river on the east and Clinton street on the west-
The present generation down to the time of the great Chicago fire had
seen very few conflagrations that worked a destruction estimated at even
a million dollars. The fire departments of the country had been so-
thoroughly organized, and were composed of such sterling material that
even a million dollar fire was thought to be almost an impossibility. We,,
however, learned our mistake. The Chicago and Boston fires conquered
as brave and experienced firemen as there were in the world, and after these
terrible misfortunes the clanging of the fire bells meant more to the people
of the two stricken cities especially, and to people generally, than it had
ever meant before. No one who has not passed through the experience,,
can fully conceive the feelings which such a catastrophe arouses in the souL
The people of large cities are accustomed to legitimate causes of excite-
ment. There are murders, fires, accidents, runaways, robberies, and
turbulence of almost every conceivable character, happening almost every
day, and something of the kind is occurring almost every hour, and the
populace compelled to witness such things, becomes accustomed to them,,
and ceases to be alarmed by them. The citizen of a quiet country village
walks through the disreputable districts of the city, and is shocked beyond
measure at the scenes which pass before him; he reads of a hundred cases.
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 189
of pestilent disease and trembles; he hears the fire alarm, and is impatient
to be assured of his own safety, and then to witness the conflagration.
People in the cities usually are calm and undemonstrative under such cir-
cumstances. They regard all such things in a community of half a million
souls as a matter of course. But when pestilence stalks through the streets
at noonday, or when there is a carnival of crime, or the flames burst forth
and enwrap an entire city in a sheet of fire, the commonly imperturbable
resident of the city experiences a sensation of unsafely and unrest which
it would be difficult to describe. He sinks in feeling from the position of
a master to that of a serf, from authority to helplessness, from confidence
to distrust, from hope to despair. It was a feeling thus imperfectly des-
cribed that made the ringing of the fire bell after the eighth of October,
1871, in Chicago, a most thrilling sound to the man, woman or child who
had been chased from their homes by the devouring element on that
memorable date.
The million dollar fire created great excitement. It was then among
the largest of conflagrations, with comparatively few exceptions, that the
majority of living people had witnessed; and although others, even in
Chicago, had been more destructive of values, few anywhere for a number
of years had made a grander spectacle. The flames rolled over the district
like the waves of the ocean driven before the tempest, lapping up the frail,
pine wood buildings, lumber piles and planing mills, and reducing one
fire engine to cinders: The fire ceased at the viaduct over the railroad
at Adams street, because there was nothing more conveniently at hand
to feed it.
On the following evening, while many an eye was upon the morning
journals' description of the fire of the previous night, the alarm was
sounded for the DeKoven street fire. Prompt as firemen always are to
respond to an alarm, before the department arrived upon the spot, the
vicinity of DeKoven and Jefferson sti-eets was all ablaze. A southwest
gale was driving the flames before it with a fearful rapidity. Northward
the flames sped their way until all the district lying between the river,
Jefferson street and the territory devastated by the fire of the previous night
was laid waste. At midnight the mad element leaped the river, and in
briefer time than it requires to relate it, a building of the South Division
gas works was in flames. Now the enemy was in the commercial portion
of the doomed city. The flames quickly reduced the surrounding shanties
to ashes ; on to LaSalle street they swept, consuming elegant structures and
even those which were considered fireproof; wider and wider grew the path
of destruction; higher and higher leaped the columns of flame, and for miles
around the crimson shadow of the fiery carnival was painted on the skies.
Within an hour from the ignition of the gas works building, the Chamber
of Commerce building was attacked, and quickly transformed into a ruin.
Then came the Court House, which resisted the attempt to destroy it for
nearly two hours, when it succumbed, and the great bell fell to the ground
groaning a short but solemn funeral march. From the Court House this
190 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
main column of fire — there were two other columns flanking the main
one, making the destruction distressingly complete — took an easterly
direction, destroying Hooley's Opera House, Crosby's Opera House
and the TIMES newspaper building. Just before reaching the foot of
Randolph street and the Illinois Central Depot, two branches of
the fire united, and the elegant wholesale stores in that vicinity and the
depot were soon in ashes. It is, however, unnecessary to designate
buildings or the course of the three distinct columns of fire, for the question
was not, What had been destroyed? but, Had there anything escaped?
From the gas works at the corner of Adams and Market streets the flames
had swept their way through to the Illinois Central Railroad Depot.
From near the intersection of VanBuren street and the river — two blocks
south of the starting point of the main column — the right column started.
Through a large section of wooden buildings, it swept like a hurricane and
quickly fastened upon the fine structures lying northward, and also burning
its way southward one block to Harrison street, which was about the
southern boundary of the great fire. Between that boundary and its union
with the central column, it destroyed nearly everything from the dark
line of march which the main column had left to the Lake Front. The
left column devoured all on the left of the main column which it had spared,
except one building on the river front, which owed its preservation to its
isolation.
Here was devastation as disheartening as blazing Moscow was to an
invading army. From northward to southward ten blocks had been
reduced to ashes, and from eastward to westward the territory of nine
blocks marked the width of the destroyer's track, and this beside the dis-
trict already described as blighted in the West Division.
But like an unchained demon, the fire was unsatisfied with the deso-
lation which it had already spread, and as if bent on vengeance upon those
who thought themselves safe, and stood admiring its rage, it leaped the
river to the North Division, between three o'clock and four o'clock on
Monday morning, and swept it as with a breath. It attacked the Water
Works, the grain elevators, and buildings of less altitude, and the flames
rolled over the Division, and frolicked together as if it were a May-day
spectacle, instead of a day of sorrow. It is difficult to give the exact
western boundary of the fire in the North Division, but it burned along
the river to near Halsted street, and then followed almost northerly a
straight line to Lincoln Park. Between Orchard street — if it ran through
to the river — on the west, the lake on the east, Lincoln Park on the north,
and the river on the south, was a scene of absolute devastation. There
was nothing more to consume in this direction, and the conflagration ceased.
From the southern to the northern limit four miles had been burned over,
and from the eastern to the western the devastated territory would average,
to be within reasonable limits, three quarters of a mile. Language
cannot convey a better idea of Chicago's terrible misfortune than this esti-
mate in miles of the territory devastated. A city had been destroved, rich
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. igi
men had become beggars, families were turned into the streets, and a
cloud through whose murky darkness not a ray of light penetrated, lowered
over stricken Chicago.
The greater portion of the West Division had escaped the calamity,
and nobly its people came to the rescue of those who were less fortunate.
Churches were thrown open for the dispensation of provisions, and private
houses were packed with those who had had a home, but had none then.
In short what was left of Chicago in either Division was ready to succor
its unfortunate fellow citizens to the utmost of its ability. But there was
an overwhelming application for resting place and for bread; there were
anxieties to be appeased ; tears to be dried, heart-aches to be soothed, and
innumerable burdens to be borne by others than those upon whom they
were originally thrust; and what was saved of Chicago was unable to
accomplish the work. A hundred thousand people had been made house-
less; they were gathered on the lake shore and on the prairies. During
the scorching heat of the conflagration, many of them were in the waters
of the lake, with their heads only above the water; mothers in childbirth
were lying in the open air, and reasonably fearful of destruction; the
wildest excitement abounded upon every hand; the tire fiend chased every
one in its course beyond the limit which it went; and after it had spent its
rage, the homeless and destitute were scattered everywhere — in mansion,
cottage, hovel, on prairie and on the lake shore.
The remnant of Chicago could not provide for this destitution. The
world was appealed to, and it responded with an alacrity that did credit to
humanity ; it poured provisions into the city, until there was enough and
to spare; from the East came trains that by the orders of railroad managers
had the right of way from New York to the city; from Europe came
supplies, and the question from all the world was: What do you want
more? Chicago will never forget the kindness that was shown her in the
hour of affliction. When she was stricken, the whole civilized world bade
her be of good cheer, and offered to assist her to arise from her ashes.
Her best expression of gratitude was that she did arise, and that she is the
most promising city of America. She fell — she arose.
192
CHAPTER XIII.
PROMINENT BUILDINGS DESTROYED AND INDIVIDUAL LOSSES.
For a convenient reference and to give a more definite idea of the
destruction which was wrought we give the following alphabetical list of
prominent buildings and business blocks which were destroyed:
Academy of Design, Galena Freight Depot, North Presbyterian Church,
Armory Police Station, Galena Elevator,
Adams House, Grace Methodist Church, Olympic Theater,
Bigelow House, Hebrew Synagogue, Pacific Hotel,
Briggs House, Hooley's Opera House, Postoffice,
Booksellers' Row, Honore Block, Pullman's Palace Car B'ld',
Palmer House,
Cathedral of the Holy Name, Illinois Central Freight Depot,
Clifton House, Illinois Central Elevator "A,"Revere House,
Court House and City Hall,
Chamber of Commerce, Lincoln School, St. Joseph's Catholic Church,
Crosby's Opera House, St. Mary's Catholic Church,
Crosby's Music Hall, Matteson House, St.Paul'sUniversalist Church
Central Depot, McVicker's Theater, Sisters of Mercy Convent,
Moseley School, St. Joseph's Priory,
Dearborn Theater, Metropolitan Hall, St. James' Hotel,
Drake-Farwell Block, Metropolitan Hotel, Sherman House,
Michigan Southern Depot, Sturges' Building,
Elm Street Hospital, Merchants Insurance B'ld',
Michigan Central Freight Trinity Episcopal Church,
First National Bank, Depot, Turner Hall,
First Presbyterian Church, McCormick's Reaper Works,Tribune Building,
Franklin School, Munger & Armour's Ele-
Farwell Hall, vator, Union National Bank,
Field & Leiter's Store, United States Warehouses,
New England Congrega-Unity Unitarian Church,
Gas Works on South Side, tional Church,
Gas Works on North Side, New Jerusalem Temple, Wood's Museum,
German House, Nevada Hotel, Wheeler's Elevator,
Galena Depot, National Elevator, Water Works.
This of course is only a very limited list, embracing only the very
highest class of buildings either in point of architecture or in importance,
but is given in the endeavor to enable the reader to get a more definite
conception of what loss the people suffered. Already a description in
miles has been given, and here is simply painted a little picture intending
to show that the finest and most important buildings and blocks in the
city went down before the fiery hurricane. Public buildings, hotels,
school houses, factories, churches, depots, and theaters were licked up by
the flames as if they were spider webs before the housewife's broom.
There were destroyed seventeen hotels, twenty-nine churches, twenty-
seven banks of deposit, twelve savings banks, and six railway stations.
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 193
To still further describe the extent of the calamity the mention of indi-
vidual losses will serve a useful purpose. J. V. Farwell lost nearly two
million dollars; William B. Ogden's losses footed up into the millions;
Cyrus H. and L. J. McCormick suffered in the loss of their reaper works,
containing at the time about two thousand finished reapers, and a
large number of unfinished machines, and in the destruction of a very large
number of buildings, beside pecuniary damages which, perhaps, have never
been accurately ascertained, even by themselves, but which reached to
millions of dollars. Potter Palmer was a notable sufferer. He was largely
engaged in mei'cantile enterprises, and was a large real estate owner on
State street, but nearly if not all of his real estate was under mortgage, as
he had apparently fixed as the object of his ambition in life, the erection,
of a mammoth hotel, and to forward his project had encumbered his
property in order to secure money. The hotel was in process of erection
when the wave of destruction swept over the city; and as its walls melted
before the flames it was difficult to see how Mr. Palmer was to extricate
himself. So firmly did the belief that he was hopelessly ruined take
possession of the people, that a rumor became current that he had com-
mitted suicide. But it was not long before such a story was put to rest, by
a telegram from Mr. Palmer — who was in the State of New York at the
time — which read: "I will rebuild my buildings at once. Put on an
extra force and hurry up the hotel." That was an exhibition of com-
mendable pluck, for Mr. Palmer had been a severe sufferer. Albert Crosby
lost between seventy-five and a hundred thousand dollars' worth of pictures
and statuary. Perry H. Smith, S. M. Nickerson, E. B. McCagg and R.
E. Moore lost heavily in works of art.
But while this is a representative picture of individual losses, there
was a brave determination to stem the current and to "owe no man any-
thing." The dry goods trade was an evidence of this. It had suffered
more than any other branch of commerce, but its courage and honesty
cannot be better described than to quote from the New York Daily
BULLETIN of November 2d, 1871. The BULLETIN said: — "There are
about twenty firms, representing by far the greater part of the indebted-
ness, who pay in full at maturity. Another firm, having probably the
largest indebtedness there, meets its paper in full, but at an average exten-
sion of a year and three quarters, and at six per cent, interest. One or
two other firms with a comparatively limited indebtedness, get extensions
averaging from nine months to a year, and propose to pay in full, but
without interest. Four of the leading firms, representing aggregate
liabilities to the amount of one million five hundred thousand dollars, com-
promise at an average of sixty cents, payable at periods ranging from three
co twelve months, without interest. This showing comprises all of the
wholesale and larger retail Chicago houses that have suffered, and here we
have an actual loss not exceeding six hundred thousand dollars. Making
liberal allowances for the possible losses that some of our jobbing houses
may sustain through the small retailers, therefore we think that it may be
194 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
safely estimated that one million dollars will pay all the actual losses sus-
tained by our dry goods merchants; and this estimate is entertained by our
most intelligent merchants.- That this is far below what dealers expected
may be inferred from the fact that on the day after the fire one of our
largest jobbing firms estimated their losses at about one million dollars,
reckoning among the creditors with whom they would have to make
liberal compromises, several houses who have since announced their ability
to meet their liabilities in full and promptly at maturity. The favorable
settlements have had the effect of restoring confidence among merchants;
and even those most given to croaking fail to see how the disaster is likely
to bring panic upon the dry goods interest through their direct losses. The
clothing trade was largely represented in Chicago, but out of the eight or
ten large houses there, not one, we believe, has asked for an extension over
any great length of time. The result shows the Chicago dry goods mer-
chants to have been more solid, financially, than they have been supposed
to be by merchants generally, although the fact that most of them pur-
chased their goods on very short time always made them favorite customers
in this market. Those who held encumbered real estate are pinched
the most by their losses; but even those are likely to be able to weather the
storm without sacrificing their property at its present depreciated value,
by the aid of the liberal extensions which their creditors have readily
accepted."
The portrayal of what Chicago was when in ashes — honest, straight-
forward, persistent and defiant, cannot be better given than in these words
of the representatives of her creditors, and we shall make no attempt to
embellish the gratifying story.
'95
CHAPTER XIV.
AFTER THE FIRE.
The sadness of the scene after the conflagration had ceased can never
be described. To those who did not witness the awful desolation, no
words can possibly convey even the faintest idea of the appearance of the
miles of blackened ruins. The question of the stranger frequently is,
Was this part of the city destroyed by the great fire ? And when the
answer, Yes, everything was destroyed as far as your eye can reach, and
even further, is given, the inquirer usually looks completely bewildered
and almost incredulous.
"Men said ?,'<; vespers: All is well.
In one wild night the city fell;
Fell shrines of prayer and marts of gain
Before the fiery hurricane.
On three score spires had sunset shone,
Where ghastly sunrise looked on none;
Men clasped each others' hands and said,
The city of the West is dead."
In these words Whittier correctly described the ruin and the first feel-
ings of the unfortunate populace. The night of horror was followed bv a
despair which was the legitimate result of such an appalling disaster. Out
on the prairies in the chilling atmosphere, were thousands upon thou-
sands huddled together, with no roof above their head except the broad sky,
and no bed beneath them except the cold earth. Many who had started from
their homes with their household possessions, halted too soon, and after
all their trouble and expense, were compelled to deliver their property to
the flames, and homeless and paupers hasten to the fields for personal safety.
The worst side of human nature was of course brought prominently to
view in the midst of the human necessity. Sickness nor any other circum-
stance was sufficient to melt the hearts of the vultures who hung about the
scene for the purpose of gorging themselves upon the misfortunes of their
fellow citizens. Enormous prices were charged for the removal of prop-
erty, and after the stipulated sum had been paid, and the goods loaded, an
additional amount was not unfrequently demanded. One apology for a
man who had contracted to move goods to a certain point for a stipulated
sum, and who refused, when half way to his destination, to go further
unless more money was paid him, altered his mind at the muzzle of a
pistol, which was a great misfortune to mankind. The thought of "man's
to.6 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
inhumanity to man" burned in the souls of thousands in the heart broken,
discouraged multitude on the prairie, and made the despair still deeper and
more somber. Humanity dreads to lose confidence in itself. When it
feels that total depravity is a fact and not a theory, it is forced to wish that
it could be divorced from itself, longs for isolation as complete as the poet
describes that of Selkirk, and prays to forget that humanity was ever
thought to be a brotherhood. With such thoughts come the most poignant
grief, as they lead to the conclusion that the sweet sympathy and love of
the human heart, which all supposed to be strong enough at all times to
prompt the expression,
"Come, child of misfortune, come hither,
I'll weep with thee, tear for tear,"
are the creation of fairy dreams.
But there was still more fertile causes of grief among the homeless
thousands. Families were separated, and whether the absent ones were
dead or alive was a question that was agitating the souls of the separated.
Mother was not with the son or daughter; husband was not with the wife;
brother was not with sister; friend was not with friend, and Where is he?
Where is she? were the questions that for the time being there was no
one to answer. Many of them, however, did not have to ask the question;
they knew only too well where the loved ones were. Some had perished
in the flames; others were borne from sick beds to die on the ground; be-
fore the eyes of loving friends some had leaped from burning buildings to
their death upon the street. What could be necessary to make the agony
of a people more complete ? A single vacant chair at the quiet fireside,
over which we often pour a flood of scorching tears, appears even mean-
ingless when compared to such a sorrow. The condition of the people of
the burned district can scarcely be better described than by noting the fact
that a mother and father wandered to the West Division with a dead infant,
seeking a place of burial, and that a resident of the West Side permitted
the grieving parents to bury it in his yard. There was no place for the
living, and seemingly no place for the dead. Can language more graphic-
ally portray the situation?
While the exact fatality can never be known, it is estimated that at
least three hundred lives were lost. In one house on Bremer street eight
dead bodies were found, comprising no doubt an entire family. Ten black-
smiths while endeavoring to save their tools from a shop on Chicago
avenue, were buried by falling walls, and many instances of a most thrilling
character could be detailed in which human life was sacrificed, but they
would serve no useful purpose here. On the second day after the fire the
coroner brought the charred and loathsome fragments of seventy bodies into
the morgue, and after giving anxious friends of missing loved ones an
opportunity to view the disfigured remains for the purpose of identification,
those that were not recognized — and only a very few were — were interred
in the county burying ground.
During Monday the terrible heat of the smoking ruins forbade any
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 197
attempt to visit them, and only at a respectful distance could the observer
gaze upon the sad but picturesque spectacle, which suggested a likeness to
ancient ruins as delineated in familiar pictures. Solemn looking wails in
every condition of ruin frowned through the smoke, and seemed like
spectral visitants in a silent, solemn cemetery. In the North Division the
fire was still raging, but practically it was after the fire, for already prepara-
tion was being made for the future. The Mayor, Comptroller, President
- of the Common Council and President of the Police Commissioners issued
a joint proclamation, pledging the faith and credit of the city for the neces-
sary expenses for the relief of the suffering, and assuring the people that
public order would be preserved. The headquarters of the city govern-
ment were located in the First Congregational Church, corner of Ann and
Washington streets, and the men of the health and fire departments were
appointed special policemen.
But it was much more easy for the civil authorities to promise to pre-
serve public order than to do it. The city was full of thieves and despe-
radoes, and it was, perhaps, impossible for the civil authorities to protect the
public from their depredations, and it was decided to turn the police
department over to General P. H. Sheridan, who accepted the trust, and
with United States soldiers and the city police under his command, placed
the city under martial law, remaining in command until the twenty-third
of October, when he was relieved by the Mayor. The brave men and
women who had made Chicago, rallied under the protection afforded by
Sheridan, and forgetting the past said: The city of the West is not dead;
and with all their sorrows, disappointments and losses, they shouted a
welcome to the Quaker poet's advice to Chicago:
"Then lift once more thy towers on high,
And fret with spires the Western sky."
While the destruction had been truly awful, and the business portion
of the city lay prostrate in ashes, and while "Chicago is destroyed" were
the words that were flashed over the wires, with the approval of all, it is
nevertheless a fact that Chicago never was destroyed. The city contained
a population of over three hundred thousand, and not more than one- third
of these were turned into the streets by the conflagration. The North
Division was almost completely destroyed, not more than five hundred
houses probably escaping; but the fire swept over a comparatively small
portion of the West Division, and it left enough in the South Division to
make a respectable sized city of itself. Seventeen thousand, four hundred
and fifty buildings were destroyed, but forty-two thousand remained. But
while it was true that what would be regarded as a large city still stood, it
was also true that the blow was dreadfully deadly in character, because the
merchants whose stores and stocks of merchandise had been destroyed,
had not had time to fully establish themselves; they were left not only
with nothing, but heavily in debt. In this respect the Chicago fire resulted
very differently from the Boston fire. There the vast majority of real
estate owners were not losers in one sense of the term. Their land was
198 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
worth more after the fire than both land and buildings had originally cost
them. But bad as was the state of affairs, hope and courage nerved the
people to bear their burdens smilingly and to be thankful that so much of
the city had been saved.
Four days after the fire the legislature of the State assembled, and
Governor Palmer urged it to provide for the necessities of Chicago, but
the legislature concluded that the State was prevented by the terms of the
State constitution from creating a debt beyond two hundred and fifty thou-
sand dollars, except for repelling invasion, suppressing insurrection, or de-
fending the State in time of war, and as any money furnished the city
would have to be borrowed, no relief of that character came from the
State. The legislature, however, did remit the taxes upon property in
the burned district, and the State assumed the city's debt of two million,
nine hundred and fifty-five thousand, and three hundred and forty dollars,
which amount had been expended in deepening the Illinois and Michigan
canal.
The insurance upon the property destroyed was naturally the first
thing thought of, but many of the insurance companies were as badly off
as the balance of the community, and little encouragement came from that
source. The number of companies having risks in Chicago at the time
was three hundred and forty-one, three hundred and thirty-five of which
were American companies and the balance foreign. The risks of the
various companies aggregated eighty-eight million, six hundred and
thirty-four thousand, and one hundred and twenty-two dollars. Had all
this been paid, it will be observed that it would not have amounted to fifty
per cent, of the loss. But it was not all paid. Fifty-seven companies
suspended, and this caused the amount paid by the underwriters to be less
than twenty per cent, of the loss.
But even this was not sufficient to dishearten the sufferers. Merchants
began to look about for new locations. Business men assumed an air of
perfect satisfaction, even if they did not feel what they showed. There
was a grand rush for stores on the West Side. Without exactly knowing
what the ultimate result to individuals was going to be, and with nothing
at hand to commence with, nearly all determined to commence anew at all
hazards. Governor Bross says that when he attempted to buy four stoves
for the TRIBUNE office, he could not get trusted for them, when the night
before the paper of the TRIBUNE Company was good for a hundred thou-
sand dollars. But Governor Bross bought the stoves, and paid for them,
although it necessitated his borrowing from several friends. That little
incident illustrated the condition and pluck of the people. The Board of
Trade established itself on South Canal street, and unanimously resolved
not to repudiate any contracts. Hotel proprietors sought new locations.
On tlie third day the bankers held a meeting and decided to go on with
business, and before night a dozen banks had found new locations, and
workmen set about putting them in order. The banks within a few days
decided to pay fifteen per cent, to depositors. The savings banks also
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 199
announced their readiness to pay depositors twenty dollars each, if their
deposits amounted to more than that sum, and to pay in full all whose
deposits were less than twenty dollars. By October seventeenth nearly all
the banks had resumed; Eastern capital was being sent forward for invest-
ment in real estate; the insurance companies were sending considerable
sums to liquidate the claims of policy holders, and really the banks had
- more money than they*had before the fire. Although one quarter of the
storage room had been destroyed, the movement of flour and grain was
active, as is shown by the receipts and shipments for the weeks ending at
the dates stated, and which we take from "Chicago and the Great Confla-
gration."
RECEIPTS.
Nov. nth, 1871. Nov. 4th, 1871.
Flour, barrels 35 272 33 016
Wheat, bushels 390 538 285 502
Corn, " 817 904 638 907
Oats, " 270367 369856
Rye, " 26474 36883
Barley, " 87 530 91 120
SHIPMENTS.
Nov. nth, 1871. Nov. 4th, 1871.
Flour, barrels 10 156 19 597
Wheat, bushels .413 909 326 451
Corn, " S47834 764614
Oats, " 449825 529505
Rye, " .* 32999 • 116126
Barley, " 107 339 71 611
The aggregate of receipts of flour and grain was indeed larger than
for the corresponding time of the previous year, and the shipments were
about the same, which was plainly indicative of Chicago's right to be
called a natural grain center, and that nothing could injure her in that
character.
The rebuilding of the burned district was at once begun. On some of
the sites wooden buildings were erected, and rude signs announced the fact
that the occupants were ready for business. In the majority of instances,
however, it was the aim to reconstruct in a substantial manner, and in order
to accomplish that object, those merchants and tradesmen who could not find
accommodations in the un'ourned districts, constructed temporary wooden
buildings on the Lake Park, on the base ball grounds and on Dearborn
Park, permission being given by the Board of Public Works for the erec-
tion of such buildings on condition that they should not exceed twenty feet
in height and should be removed at the expiration of a year. The work
of rebuilding went steadily forward, and it was not many weeks before the
new city gave abundant evidence of her determination and her power to
rise from her ashes. The merchants had more than they could do. Orders
for goods fairly poured in upon them, and while there was a perfect
willingness on the part of Eastern merchants to sell them goods, there
was still a lack of stock, for the reason that the railroads were over-
taxed, and could not possibly deliver merchandise as fast as it was wanted.
All of the Eastern roads did a larger freight business during the month of
2oo CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
October, 1871, than they did during the month of October the previous
year.
But matters gradually regulated themselves. The people had a single
object in view, to re-establish the beautiful city of the West, and to make
it grander in architectural beauty and completeness than even the most
fanciful dreamer had ever dared to picture. Without water supply,
without gas, with acres of desolation about them, and poor in purse, but
rich in energy, they diligently and sacrificingly applied themselves to their
task, until upon the smoking ruins of the ninth of October arose the most
beautiful city on the American continent.
2OI
PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN.
For the last eleven years one of the most prominent of the citizens of
Chicago has been Philip Henry Sheridan, Lieutenant General of the United
States Army. He was born in Somerset, Ohio, March 6th, 1833, and
received the usual common school education of a country lad until his
fifteenth year. He then obtained employment in a country store of which
his eldest brother was one of the partners ; but within a few months he
received an appointment to the United States Military Academy, and
wisely abandoning his idea of a mercantile career, he entered West Point
in 1848, and graduated in 1853, and was commissioned a Brevet Second
Lieutenant in the First United States Infantry. For something over a
year he served with his regiment on the Texas frontier, when he was ap-
pointed a Second Lieutenant of the Fourth Infantry, and joined his com-
mand on the Pacific coast. For the next six years he was constantly upon
frontier duty in California, Oregon and Washington Territory, serving
part of the time as commander of the escort of the United States boundary
Survey, and at other times in command of cavalry detachments, and again
opening roads and scouting after Indians and taking a prominent part in
several Indian campaigns. He had already received the thanks of the Major
General commanding the Army in General Orders, and was a marked
man when the war of the rebellion broke out. On the fourteenth of May,
1 86 1, he was commissioned a Captain in the newly organized Fourteenth
Infantry and in October of the same year he proceeded to the Atlantic coast
to join his regiment. On his arrival in New York, he was sent to the West
to purchase horses for the use of the army, and in a short time ordered to
St. Louis to audit army accounts and straighten out certain details that had
apparently become in inextricable confusion. In November, 1861, he was
made chief quartermaster of the Army of the Southwest and made the Pea
Ridge campaign with that command. In May, 1862, he was appointed
Colonel of the Second Michigan Cavalry, and almost immediately showed
his fitness for the position by hunting up and attacking the enemy, and sig-
nally defeating his cavalry in several engagements, particularly at Booneville,
Mississippi, where being suddenly attacked by the rebel General Chalmers,
with a greatly superior force, he not only repelled the attack, but assuming
the offensive, completely routed his adversary and captured more rebel pris-
oners than the entire force of United States troops on the field. For this action
he was made a Brigadier General of Volunteers, and assigned to the com-
2O2 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZKNS.
mand of the Eleventh Division, Army of the Ohio, and commanded it at
the battle of Perryville to the entire satisfaction of his superior officers.
He was shortly after assigned to the command of a Division in the Army
of the Cumberland, and at the battle of Stone River greatly distinguished
himself for stubborn fighting, so much so, that he was made a Major Gen-
eral of Volunteers. At the battle of Chickamaitga his Division again won
plaudits for splendid fighting, not only from our side, but fairly extorted it
from the rebel officers. At the battle of Missionary Ridge his Division
assaulted and carried the center of the ridge, though at a terrible loss of
officers and men. In March, 1864, he was assigned to command of the
Cavalry Corps of the Army of the Potomac. Here the same energy and
ability he had shown in the West came into full play, and he promptly
took the offensive; and as soon as the army started on its Wilderness cam-
paign he led the advance until the enemy entrenched himself at Spottsyl-
vania Court House. Then having obtained permission from General
Grant he cut loose from the army, swept around its left flank, and pushed
fairly into the rebel entrenchments at Richmond. Fighting the enemy's
cavalry wherever he could find it, and harassing his communications in
every direction, he soon made himself dreaded by the foe. At the battle
of Yellow Tavern General J. E. B. Stuart, the well known rebel cavalry
commander, was killed, and Sheridan returned and rejoined the Army of
the Potomac, with the prestige of the rising cavalry commander of the day.
During the next four months he was constantly in the saddle, fighting more
than twenty different engagements, cutting the enemy's communications and
destroying his railroad connections on both flanks, and in fact harassing
him in every possible way; and before Mid-Summer he was acknowledged
as the great cavalry leader of the war. In August, 1864, he was assigned
to the command of the Army of the Shenandoah, and throwing himself
into the work of re-organizing the army with his usual tireless energy, he
soon reported himself ready to assume the offensive against the hitherto
victorious enemy under command of General Jubal A. Early. On Sep-
tember 1 7th, 1864, General Grant, after a short personal interview, gave
him the now celebrated order to "go in," and on the nineteenth General
Sheridan assumed the offensive and attacked the rebel forces near Win-
chester, defeating them after a hotly contested battle from daybreak to
sunset. Pursuing the fleeing foe he found them strongly entrenched in
what was thought to be an impregnable position at Fisher's Hill, but on
the twenty-second of September he again attacked them, turned their
flanks by an adroit movement, and defeated and routed them, taking large
numbers of prisoners and many guns. During his temporary absence at
Washington General Early again assumed the offensive, and under cover
of a heavy fog attacked the United States forces. After an obstinate
resistance he defeated and drove them out of their entrenchments and back
toward Winchester for several miles. Hearing the roar of the guns and
being informed of the defeat of our forces, Sheridan, who was at Win-
chester, nearly twenty miles distant, rode rapidly to the front, finding the
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
203
army defeated and partially demoralized and still slowly falling back, hav-
ing lost heavily in men, guns and munitions of war. Grasping the situa-
tion he at once re-organized his lines, connected his divisions, rallied the
stragglers and on the advance of the enemy met and hurled him back
with heavy loss. Then transferring part of his cavalry to the right of his
army, and repelling an attack of the enemy's horse in that direction, he
ordered an advance along the whole line, and skillfully turning the left
flank of trie enemy's infantry, routed the foe with great slaughter, recap-
turing the guns and munitions and most of the prisoners taken by the
enemy in the morning, and capturing nearly every gun and nearly all of
the enemy's transportation, together with thousands of prisoners, encamp-
ing his forces at nightfall on the very ground from which they were driven
with such disaster in the morning. The results of this battle won Sheridan
golden opinions both at home and abroad; the whole North rang with his
praises; Congress passed resolutions of thanks to him and his army; Presi-
dent Lincoln congratulated him in an autograph letter; General Grant
telegraphed the Secretary of War that "turning a defeat into a great
victory stamped Sheridan what he had always thought him, one of the
foremost soldiers of the age;" the London TIMES had a leading editorial
upon the battle, in which it said: "While Desaix saved the French army
from defeat at Marengo by his timely arrival on the field, it must be
recollected that he arrived at the head of six thousand fresh troops, but
that Sheridan turned 'the tide of battle alone by his ability and the inspira-
tion of his presence."
In the latter part of February, 1864, General Sheridan with eight
thousand cavalry started up the Shenandoah Valley with the intention of
capturing Lynchburg, Virginia. General Early attempted to dispute his
march, but was defeated and nearly all of his command captured at the
battle of Waynesboro, on March second. Then crossing the Blue Ridge
Mountains, Sheridan attempted to seize the bridges crossing the James
river. These, however, were burned by the enemy, and he had to aban-
don his idea of capturing Lynchburg, as owing to the incessant rains
the river was bank-full and his small pontoon train would not reach across the
river% Instead of returning to Winchester he determined to rejoin General
Granl; and the Army of the Potomac, then besieging Petersburg and Rich-
mond. Turning east from Charlottesville he raided the whole country
north of the James river, destroying rebel supplies and manufactories in
every direction, cutting the James river and Kanawha canal and destroy-
ino- many of its locks. Tearing up the Virginia Central and Fredericks-
burg railroads and burning their bridges, he moved almost up to the
enemy's pickets on the west of Richmond. Then moving to White House,
Virginia, he joined the Army of the Potomac by the way of the Chicka-
homfliy river. In this raid he did almost incalculable damage to the enemy
and finally placed his command at the point it was most needed for the final
•campaign.
In the closing battles of the war, ending with the surrender of the
204 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
Army of Northern Virginia, on the ninth of April, 1865, General Sheridan
bore a conspicuous and distinguished part. He fought the battle of Din-
widdie Court House, on the left of the Army of the Potomac, on the thirty-
first of March, and the battle of Five Forks on the first of April, utterly
routing and capturing a large force of the enemy, his captures in this battle
exceeding six thousand men and ten thousand stand of small arms. This
battle was the decisive blow of the campaign. General Lee finding that
Sheridan was on his right and rear, decided at once to evacuate Richmond
and Petersburg, and sent word to the rebel president, Davis, that he must no
longer expect him to hold his positions. At dawn of the second of April the
entire Army of the Potomac attacked the rebel lines and were everywhere
successful, and Lee moved out of his entrenchments and pushed for Lynch-
burg, hoping to effect a junction with General Joe Johnstone's forces, who
were falling back from General Sherman's advancing troops. Here was
Sheridan's opportunity, and gloriously did he take advantage of it. Hanging
on to Lee's flanks he assailed him in every possible way, never tiring, always
alert, constantly in the saddle night and day, he gave the fleeing enemy
no rest, but compelled him to act constantly on the defensive, and always
with heavy losses of men, munitions of war and wagon trains. At Sailor's
Creek he fought what was practically the last great battle of the war,
capturing General Ewell with ten other general officers and ten thou-
sand prisoners of war. By making a series of forced inarches he threw
his cavalry directly across the head of Lee's retreating columns at Ap-
pomattox Station, on the night of April 8th, 1865, capturing four railroad
trains of supplies for the rebel army, twenty-five pieces of reserve artillery
and a large train of army wagons.
Lee was now practically a prisoner, and our infantry forces having
arrived during the night, he was compelled to surrender the next day,
after a brilliant but unsuccessful attempt to force the government lines.
This closed the war. Sheridan was ordered to New Orleans in com-
mand of the Department of the Gulf, remaining there until 1867. He
was then assigned to the Department of the Missouri, with headquarters
at Fort Leavenworth. In the Winter of 1868-9 ^e made a most success-
ful campaign against the Cheyenne Indians. In March, 1869, he was
made Lieutenant General and established his headquarters in this city.
Personally General Sheridan is a little below medium height, broad
shouldered and erect, with a deep black eye, bronzed face, full brown
moustache and short hair now rapidly turning gray. In his habits he is-
very methodical, keeping regular office hours and closely superintending
everything relating to his military Division. In speaking his voice is-
always pitched in a low tone and his words clearly enunciated. No man
in the country more thoroughly commands the respect of the people who-
revere our o-overnment and who believe that the United States is a nation
205
CHAPTER XV.
CHICAGO AND THE REBELLION OF l86l.
April 1 4th, 1 86 1, will ever be memorable in American history, as the
date of the first overt act in a wide spread and determined effort to break
the union of these States. It does not properly belong to a history of this
character to trace the outbreak of the Southern States against the authority
of the general government to its source or sources, and yet the most illus-
trious of Chicago's favorite sons, Stephen A. Douglas, played such a
prominent part in the events immediately preceding the first act of seces-
sion, that Chicago history seems more intimately connected with the history
of that epoch than that of any other Northern community. For long
years there had been raging an irrepressible conflict between the spirit
of slavery in the South and that of liberty in the North. The institution
of human slavery was a cherished idol in the Southern States, and they
were able, through their own political strength and by the aid of Northern
sympathizers, to hedge it about with the protection of law and judicial
decisions to a degree that was extremely exasperating to that part of the
nation which not only believed that slavery was wrong, but that any law
which made it incumbent upon the citizens of the Northern States to act
as a constabulary for the return of fugitives from bondage, was unsanc-
tioned by the spirit of our institutions. But the slave oligarchy was in-
clined to listen to nothing but an absolute concession to its demands. The
boast of Robert Toombs that he would yet call the roll of his slaves in
the shadow of Bunker Hill Monument, was apparently but the echo of
Southern sentiment for many years before Mr. Toombs uttered his sense-
less threat. Congress was almost wholly engaged in discussing the slavery
question. Compromises were made, only to be disregarded by the advocates
of slavery. Anthony Burns was led through the streets of Boston on his
way back into bondage, under the armed surveillance of Northern citizens
who, from the Supreme Court of the State to the militia and the city police,
were willing to act the part of blood hounds to track and lacerate a human
being because he thought the Declaration of American Independence
meant what it said in the expression : "That [men] are endowed with certain
inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness." It would have been a burning and eternal disgrace to Ameri-
can citizenship, if such unreasonable claims as were put forth by the slave
power, and such outrages upon humanity and mockery of justice as the
return of Anthony Burns to slavery, under the decision of Chief Justice
206 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
Shaw of Massachusetts, had not aroused a spirit of liberty which was
destined to overwhelm those who were engaged in such an inhuman
cause with confusion. Wendell Phillips, William Loyd Garrison, Charles
Sumner, and others of like ability and courage, denounced the continued
aggression of the slave holder with a power that made the nation tremble.'
Chief Justice Shaw was told that when he stooped to pass under the
chains that were stretched around the Boston Court House to prevent
American citizens from getting too close to the incarcerated Anthony
Burns, that he himself was an abject slave, and had soiled the ermine
of his office. The Mayor and Marshal of the city, who had ordered
every one of their police, however distant their beats were from the
Court House, to pass that point every hour of the night, while Anthony
Burns was in the Tombs, found men brave enough to tell them that they
were cringing cowards.
Thus the battle between freedom and slavery raged. The highest law of
the universe sustained the former — the law of the land sustained the latter.
Still there was quite a general sentiment in favor of letting the institution
of slavery remain where it was, without interference. But the South was
not satisfied with this. It claimed that inasmuch as the Territories belonged
to the whole United States, the people of the South had a right to take
their slaves into them, and that the government must protect them. To
this proposition the immortal Douglas dissented, and although a Demo-
crat, opened a vigorous warfare against the Democratic administration of
Buchanan, who sustained the South in its demands. The result was a
split in the Democratic party at the national convention held in 1860.
John C. Breckenridge was nominated for the Presidency by the Southern
faction of the party, and Mr. Douglas was nominated by the faction which
believed that the Territories had the right to say whether or not slavery
should exist in them.
The result of the split was that Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois, the
nominee of the Republicans, was elected President of the United States,
and the South, enraged at the consequence of its own folly, determined to
dismember the union of States. Treasonable speeches were made on the
floor of Congress. Mr. Buchanan, who was an old man, just entering
upon his second childhood, was faced- by a torrent of unusual events, which
completely unnerved him, and it is within the limits of charitable consider-
ation to believe that he was utterly incompetent to prevent the traitors
about him from consummating the most rascally schemes. Mr. Buchanan
deserves a great deal more pity than censure, and if the American people
have learned anything from his conduct, it is that a man of his age is not
fit for the Presidency of -the nation. But in whatever light his actions
may be viewed, the startling facts are before us that members of Congress
delivered defiant speeches, and went out to destroy the nation; that the
navy was disabled for home service; that arms were spirited away to
the South, and that the government was nearly powerless to maintain itself.
The fourth of March, 1861, at last came, and witnessed the inau°-ura-
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 207
tion of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States. From Spring-
field, Illinois, to the capital of the nation this man of the people found
kindly greetings all the way. He was a common man and he was honest;
and this was about all that the people knew of Abraham Lincoln. With-
out being recognized as a statesman, he was about to enter upon the
administration of a government which seemed, under the circumstances, to
demand the best of statesmanship. Along his way to Washington traitors
laid in wait to take his life, but happily for the American Republic, they
were thwarted in their designs. Arriving at the capital, Mr. Lincoln was
inaugurated, and in his address breathed the kindliest sentiments toward
the South. But the Southern people would not listen, and when an attempt
was made to provision Fort Sumter on the fourteenth of April, 1861, the
first gun of the rebellion was fired at the fort, and the next day the garrison
was compelled to surrender. Civil war was now commenced.
The moment that the news of the assault upon Fort Sumter was
flashed over the wires, the North was ablaze with patriotism, and
no section was more heaitily determined to rebuke treason than was Chi-
cago. She said in actions what her honored Douglas said upon his death
bed : "The government must be sustained.'" The streets were filled with
men from all avocations, who were anxious to shoulder arms and march
for the protection of the fame and flag of the nation.
On the nineteenth of April Governor Yates telegraphed General
Swift to raise an armed force as quickly as possible, and in obedience to
the dispatch the General left Chicago two days later with five hundred
and ninety-five men and four pieces of artillery. This force was detailed
for duty at Cairo, and it was here that the Chicago Light Artillery and
companies A and B of the Chicago Zouaves first saw actual military service.
Before the end of May the Washington Light Cavalry and the
Chicago Dragoons were organized. In June the Nineteenth Regiment,
Colonel Mulligan's Irish Brigade, and the Hecker Regiment were formed,
and the Yates Sharpshooters, the Scotch Regiment and other companies
and regiments followed, all recruited partially in Chicago. Indeed the
patriotism of the people induced military organization much more rapidly
than the government desired, and the mistaken belief that the contest was
to be quickly decided, led to the refusal to accept some of the force which
was offered, much to the discouragement of the -brave men who were
willing and anxious to go to the front, and also of those who though unable
to enlist were willing to sustain those who could.
Toward the Autumn of 1861, Governor Yates appointed Colonel
Joseph H. Tucker to the command of the northern district of the State,
and he at once established a camp, near the University of Chicago, naming
it Camp Douglas, in honor of the great senator. About seventy acres were
set apart for military purposes, and barracks were created for the accom.
modation of eight thousand men.
In February, 1862, over eight thousand Confederate prisoners arrived
from Fort Donaldson, where they had been captured, and were placed in
208 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
the camp under guard of our troops. About this time Colonel Tucker
surrendered the command of the camp to Colonel Mulligan, who after the
battle of Lexington, Missouri, was ordered home to reorganize his regi-
ment. In the following June, however, Colonel Tucker resumed com-
mand, and two regiments of three-months men were recruited for camp
duty. Then came a large number of paroled troops captured at Harper's
Ferry, under the command, or more properly, management of Brigadier-
General Tyler. These paroled men thinking that they should neither be
treated as prisoners, nor compelled to do any duty, until exchanged, while
General Tyler thought otherwise, and acted as he thought, much trouble
resulted, and the people of Chicago were fearful that .an outbreak might
occur which would endanger the safety of the city. Perhaps this feeling
was reasonable in the light' of the fact that the dissatisfaction among the
men had led to the firing of the barracks and to other very ugly looking
acts upon their part. It is not likely, however, that the thought of doing
injury to the city ever found lodgment in the mind of a single soldier. At
least none was done or attempted.
The paroled troops departed in the Fall of 1862, and Brigadier-
General Ammon took command. Very soon after this the saddest part of
the history of Camp Douglas was made. Just at the edge of Winter a
large number of Confederate prisoners arrived, and being unaccustomed
to the rigors of our Northern climate, notwithstanding the kind atten-
tion shown them by the humane citizens and their guard, they died off
very rapidly. From the opening of the camp until March, 1863, thirty
thousand troops had been fitted for the front, eight thousand paroled soldiers
had been quartered, and seventeen thousand rebel prisoners had been con-
fined within its uninviting confines. When March came, however, it was
nearly deserted, only a little more than two companies of the United
States troops remaining. Later in this year Colonel C. V. DeLand,'of a
Michigan regiment, took command, and the camp was again used as a mili-
tary prison. Near the close of the year Colonel DeLand was succeeded
by General Orme, who was succeeded in May, 1864, by Colonel J. C.
Strong, and he in the following July by Colonel B. J. Sweet. The num-
ber of rebel prisoners now rapidly increased, and it was found that the
guard, which did not number much over a thousand, was entirely inade-
quate to keep them safely. In August, therefore, a Pennsylvania regiment
of one hundred days men was ordered here as a reinforcement, and in
addition thereto the Twenty-fourth Ohio Battery, with Parrott guns, soon
arrived. The camp was abandoned at the close of the war, having been
the prison house of about thirty thousand men.
Outside of the camp Chicago was a busy and important point. The
government had made it a depot for the purchase of supplies, and the
purchases amounted to millions of dollars. Recruiting went steadily on
as requisitions for men were made by the government, but like all other
cities, Chicago was compelled to submit at last to a draft, but unlike many
other cities, only fifty-nine conscripts were forced into the army from her
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 209
citizenship. Had she had credit for all the men she furnished the army
and navy during the first stages of the war, not a man would have gone
as a conscript in order to fill her quota.
"In November, 1864," says Professor Colbert, "the people were
startled by the rumor that a plot had been formed to release the prisoners
in Camp Douglas, and capture and sack the city, on the eve of the presi-
dential election.' A large number of men from the southern part of the
State had arrived in the city a few days previously, with no ostensible
purpose. These were arrested, with several residents who were suspected
of being rebel sympathizers. A number of them were afterward tried by
court-martial in Cincinnati, but after the close of the war most of them
were pardoned and allowed to return home, after an imprisonment of nine
months. The plot, if ever devised, was still-born."
The prosperity of Chicago during the war was exceptionally brilliant.
Perhaps no better description of it can be given than by quoting Profes-
sor Colbert who says that, "the war built up Chicago, giving a wonderful
stimulus to its commerce and manufactures, but the first effect was disas-
trous in the extreme. The shock unsettled every one, the experience being so
novel that very few were able to form even a faint idea of its influence upon
the business of the city. But it is due to the merchants to say that they
were unwilling to take offered chances of gain. Immediately on the out-
break of hostilities large sums of gold were sent to Chicago from New
Orleans and other Southern cities, requesting that produce should be sent
in exchange. The men to whom these orders were addressed, one and all,
sent back the money, saying that they would have nothing to do with the
sending of supplies to an enemy.
When the war broke out, the issues of Western banks were largely
based on Southern stocks — there being not less than twelve million dollars'
worth (?) of that kind of property in the State. Of course it rapidly depre-
ciated, causing an unnatural fluctuation in the price of exchange, and the
market value of all kinds of produce. Within a month the case had be-
come so desperate that the newspapers published daily lists of the quotable
values, in gold, of the different bank bills, these quotations ranging all the
way from ten cents on the dollar to par — very few of the Blatter. And
these quotations fluctuated so widely that no one felt sure in receiving pay-
ment that the quotation would be sustained till he could pay it over to
some one else. For once in the world's history, nearly every one preferred
paying his debts to keeping the 'money' on hand. Soon thereafter most
of the Illinois banks went out of existence, and within a few weeks all
tracesj of the 'wild-cat' had disappeared forever. The subsequent experi-
ence in the gradual depreciation of government currency, the consequent
scarcity of small change, the desperate expedients to which the people
resorted before the issue of fractional currency, and the general adoption
of the national bank-note as a circulating medium, are matters of general
history pertaining no more to Chicago than to any other place in the
Northern States, except on the Pacific coast, where the people used a
2io CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
metallic currency all through the war. An attempt was made to arrest
the displacement of this currency by the circulation of a document, to
which many of the leading business men subscribed, pledging themselves
to take the bills of certain banks at par till the close of the war. But
they might as well have attempted to stop the torrent of Niagara with a
wooden spoon. The resolve was adhered to barely three days, and then
the stuff disappeared as if by magic. It was wonderful, too, to see how
little embarrassment was caused by the withdrawal of so much currency
from circulation. It astonished even those of the East, but they soon knew
. the reason — learned it in a lesson that only war could teach. The material
of the nation's prosperity lay at the West. Cotton was deposed from his
throne, and corn and pork thenceforward reigned undisturbed as the grand
duumvirate of the United States. The people of the East were obliged
to send their money westward if they would receive those prime neces-
saries of existence — rendered doubly necessary by the enhanced consump-
tion attendant upon grim war. ^
As the exponent of Western production, Chicago rapidly rose to a
much higher position than she had ever before occupied. Agricultural
production was wonderfully stimulated by the shedding of blood. Then
the soldiers needed equipments. The supply of ammunition was princi-
pally drawn from other points, but for food, clothing, saddlery, horses and
wagons, and the other etceteras of the march and the camp, Chicago was
called upon to the utmost of her resources, the government establishing an
agency here at an early day. The city was really an important base of
supply; far enough away from the scene of strife to be safe, and yet so
closely connected by rail with every part of the country that troops and
munitions could be moved with facility to any point desired."
When the war ended, and the citizen soldiery returned to their homes,
there was a reaction, and Chicago was faced by a threatened adversity,
which came near staggering its best minds. Values depreciated nearly
fifty per cent, and the evening shadows seemed to be falling upon the very
height of the noonday, but the sound judgment which has always character-
ized the conduct of the business men of Chicago, led the city out of the
threatened storm into the sunshine. Until the great conflagration, here-
tofore described, no city in the world enjoyed an aggregate of prosperity
equal to that of Chicago.
21 I
WILLIAM ALDRICH.
This country is greatly indebted for much of the sturdiness of character
and tenacious devotion to principle which characterize its people, to the
religious sect known as Quakers. In almost every section of the nation
the influence of the precepts of these worthy people are observable in the
lives of their representatives and in the influence of those lives upon
the communities in which they are found. Often the outward semblance
is wanting in these descendants, but never so with the inner. The seed
which was carefully sown in the heart of youth is always found ripening
in a bountiful harvest in the soul of age. To say, therefore, that the sub-
ject of this sketch is of Quaker origin, at once suggests that the life we
are about to write has been one of exceptional honor, integrity and useful-
ness; and such it has been in a marked degree. In the privacy of home,
the activity of business, or in official position, it has been a life of modest
bearing, but of prominent regard for the highest interests of society,
country and humanity.
William Aldrich was born on a farm in Greenfield, Saratoga county,
New York, January, 1820, and is the son of William and Mercy Farnum
Aldrich, who were prominent members of the Society of Friends, the
father being a preacher of the sect. The son spent his boyhood amidst
the scenes of his birth, receiving a common school and academic education,
and what was of equal importance being taught by his parents, according
to their religious belief, that success in life depended upon an unostentatious
practice of morality and integrity.
With such a foundation for future achievements young Aldrich went
out into the world and commenced a career which has been distinguished
for activity and profitable direction. In 1846 we find him at Jackson,
Michigan, engaged in mercantile business. Five years later he removed
to Two Rivers, Wisconsin, and commenced the manufacture of lumber,
opening a yard in Chicago in 1852. While in business at Two Rivers, he
was also largely engaged in the building of mills, factories and vessels.
In 1859 he disposed of his interests at this place, and in company with
another gentleman, purchased a large estate, including flour and saw mills,
at Watervliet, Michigan, where for two years in addition to merchandizing,
he was engaged in the manufacture of flour and lumber. Selling out these
interests in 1861, he removed to Chicago, and from that time until 1877
vvas interested in a prosperous wholesale grocery business. Withdrawing
212 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
from this business he organized the Chicago Linseed Oil Company in
1878, and has been its president since its organization.
Besides this active business experience, Mr. Aldrlch has been called
by the people to serve in numerous places of honor and trust, in all of
which he has acquitted himself in a way that reflected honor upon his own
name and gave the fullest satisfaction to his constituency. While a resi-
dent of Two Rivers he filled the office of Town Superintendent of
Schools from 1852 to 1855; was Trustee of the village in 1855-7; Chair-
man of the Board of County Supervisors in 1857-8, and was a member
of the Wisconsin legislature in 1859. Very soon after removing to
Watervliet, Michigan, he was elected Supervisor, and thus was compelled
to bear what most men, engaged as extensively in business as he was,
would consider more than a fair share of public responsibility. Nor has
his citizenship in Chicago been less free . of official weight. Elected as
Alderman from the Third Ward in 1876, before the year had expired he
wa's elected a member of the forty-fifth Congress from the first Illinois
district, was re-elected in 1878, and again in iSSo.
As a representative in Congress Mr. Aldrich has been a quiet, patient
and tireless worker in the interests of his district and in behalf of the
whole country. While so many of our public men during the past few
years have, in one way and another, compromised their honor, or at least
excited suspicion, Mr. Aldrich has crowned himself with laurels, the
beauty and purity of which a breath of scandal has never faded or polluted,
and he will retire from his high office, at his own option, with the respect
of the thousands who admire his modesty, no less than his efficiency, as a
public officer. His public career has been marked by no eccentricities, no
stepping aside into by-paths where temptation to ease or emolument allure,
but has been distinguished only by his faithful discharge of duty.
In 1846, Mr. Aldrich was married at Aurora, New York, to Anna
M. Howard, a lady of refinement and charming character, who has
been for these nearly two score of years, a light in his home, as well as of
a large circle of devoted friends. Three children have blessed this union,
William Howard, thirty-two, James Franklin, twenty-seven, and Frederick
Clement, eighteen years of age, all young men of signal promise and
worthy of their parentage.
In personal appearance Mr. Aldrich is much younger looking than
men of his age usually are, and he has the courteous and dignified bearing
of an old style gentleman. His manners are winning and assuring to the
stranger, and he is readily approachable by all who wish to secure his
attention in matters of public or private business. In religious belief he is
a Reformed Episcopalian, having been a member and senior warden of
Christ Church, since its organization in 1870. Many lessons could be
profitably drawn from Mr. Aldrich's life, did the space permit, but they
will readily suggest themselves. It has been a life of great usefulness arid
honor.
2I3
CHAPTER XVI.
MEDICAL COLLEGES AND PROFESSION.
The medical colleges of Chicago are a branch of her fine educational
facilities, of which she has abundant reason for self-congratulation. While
necessarily young in years these institutions have won such wide reputation
for thoroughness of instruction and honorable management, that not only
do they enjoy the full confidence of the profession, but are favored with a
most flattering patronage. Schools for professional training almost in-
variably reflect the local character of the profession which they represent.
Usually the outcome of local conception and effort, this would naturally
be expected and would legitimately follow. If we assume that such is the
rule, and that Chicago's medical schools are not an exception, we establish
the high character of such schools in this city, without further attempt at
substantiation of that claim for them. Chicago has been and is singularly
favored with medical ability. It made its appearance early in the history
of the town and has kept pace in development and increase with the rapid
march of progress. If we go back to those early days when the rude fort
and its garrison comprised about all that there was of Chicago, we find
Dr. Isaac V. Van Voorhees in the position of post surgeon, and the pioneer
physician of Chicago. He died bravely in the fight between the Indians
and the soldiers on the attempted march to Fort Wayne, after the abandon-
ment of the fort in 1812. In "Waubun," by Mrs. John H. Kinzie, abook
published in 1857, an attack, it is true, is made upon the courage of Dr.
Van Voorhees in that conflict, the same being the repetition of the story
of Mrs. Helm, who represents the surgeon as showing cowardice and her-
self as reproving him, and finally that as an Indian was dragging her
toward the lake, she saw the lifeless body of the surgeon, who had doubt-
less been felled with a tomahawk. Dr. James Nevins Hyde, in a well
written book called "Early Medical Chicago," published at Chicago by the
Fergus Printing Company, comes to the defense of Dr. Van Voorhees,
and says, very truly, "that without questioning the veracity of the writer,
it is evident that the incidents narrated rest upon the recollection of a single
individual, and that individual a woman surrounded by circumstances of
extreme peril and excitement. She appears as the heroine of the story,
and, therefore, due allowance should be made for partiality of statement.
Dr. Van Voorhees, moreover, was evidently suffering from his wounds.
What other injuries he may have sustained, whether of the brain, chest or
abdomen, we cannot know. Whether, indeed, he was wounded unto
214 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
death, and sank lifeless to the ground soon after, rather as the result of this
than from the blow of a tomahawk cannot be determined. Jurists as well
as medical men learn to accept with great reserve, statements made either
in articulo mortis or in the immediate peril of violent death. Too many
surgeons have exhibited not only consummate skill, but a splendid courage
upon the field of battle, for their professional brethren to doubt the com-
patibility of these virtues. They will only remember, therefore, of their
martyred representative in the massacre of Chicago, that he was sorely
wounded in the discharge of his professional duties, and that he died the
death of a soldier."
The words of Dr. Hyde, no doubt, will be thought by many to be
simply expressive of a jealous regard for the honor of his profession, and
of a sentiment which the actual evidence in the case deprives of even the
slightest foundation. Instead of this being true, however, the very best
evidence obtainable in such cases, and such evidence as is and must neces-
sarily be relied upon — the official report of the engagement — mentions the
loss of Dr. Van Voorhees as deplorable, which Captain Heald, even had
he been a most partial friend to the surgeon, would hardly have done had he
proved recreant in such an hour of peril. The man or woman who courted
death and died to open the way for civilization to establish itself on these
once uninviting prairies, deserves better at our hands than to have his or
her memory marred by a single whisper of detraction, unless unworthiness
of character shall be established by the most unmistakable testimony.
Dr. Alexander Wolcott was the next physician of whom we have any
record, and he came from Connecticut as an Indian Agent for the govern-
ment in 1820, and succeeded John Jewett in that position. Dr. Wolcott acted
as post surgeon until 1823 — when Dr. S. G. J. Decamp was appointed — and
also practiced outside the fort. Soon after arriving here he was married
to Ellen M. Kinzie, daughter of John Kinzie, and who at the time of her
marriage was only sixteen years of age. Dr. Wolcott was born February
I4th, 1790, and died at Chicago in 1830.
Following Dr. Wolcott came Dr. Elijah D. Harmon, who came from
Vermont and arrived in Chicago in the Autumn of the same year in which
Dr. Wolcott died. Dr. Harmon was born at Bennington, Vermont, on
the twentieth of August, 1772; studied medicine at Manchester in his
native State, and began the practice of his profession when twenty-five
years of age, at Burlington in the same State. In the war of 1812 he
volunteered as a surgeon, returning, at the close of that conflict, to his
home in Burlington and resuming his practice. In 1829 he visited the
West, spend ing several months in Jacksonville, Illinois, and finally decided
to settle in Chicago. There being no surgeon in the fort at the time of
Dr. Harmon's arrival, he was immediately given the position, which he
filled -with undisturbed equanimity until the arrival of General Winfield S.
Scott, with a detachment of five companies of troops, to participate in the
Black Hawk War. The cholera having broken out among the soldiers,
General Scott demanded of Dr. Harmon his exclusive attention to the
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 215
companies under his care, to the neglect of those outside the garrison, who
were stricken with the dreadful disease. This was the only unpleasant
feature in Dr. Harmon's personal experience as the surgeon of the fort.
He ministered to the soldiers with the most signal success, and at the
same time found opportunity to attend to outside cases.
After General Scott and his command had gone South the Doctor se-
cured the Kinzie house, taking possession of it in the Spring of 1833,
intending henceforth to devote himself to the practice of medicine among
the inhabitants. Dr. Hyde, by way of describing the Doctor's surroundings, %
quotes the rather graphic description of the place in 1833 by Latrobe, in the
Western Portraiture and Emigrants' Guide, which was, "a doctor or two,
two or three lawyers, a land-agent and five or six hotel keepers; these may
be considered the stationary occupants and proprietors of the score of clap-
board houses around you; then, for the birds of passage, exclusive of the
Pottawatomies, you have emigrants, speculators, horse dealers and stealers,
rogues of every description, white, black and red, quarter-breeds, and
men of no breed at all, dealers in pigs, poultry and potatoes, creditors of
Indians, sharpers, peddlers, grog sellers, Indian agents, traders and con-
tractors to supply the post."
Dr. Harmon, however, did not continue in uninterrupted practice very
long after removing into the Kinzie house. In the Spring of 1834 he
left for a visit to Texas, and until the third of January, 1869 — on which
elate he died — he made several visits to that State, making some profitable
investments therein.
During the time we have been describing, Dr. S. G. J. Decamp and
Dr. J. B. Finley occupied the position of post surgeons. Dr. Decamp made
the report of the cholera cases in the fort, a^nd, therefore, the medical
department must have been under his direction. Of Dr. J. B. Finley there
seems to be no record, but there is other evidence that he had been the
surgeon in the fort but a short time previous to the advent of Dr. Harmon.
On March I5th, 1833, Surgeon Phillip Maxwell reported for duty at
Fort Dearborn, having been ordered so to do during the previous month.
Dr. Maxwell was born at Guilford, in the State of Vermont, on the third
of April, 1799. He graduated in medicine, in one of the universities in
Vermont, and afterward removed to Sackett's Harbor, New York, where
he commenced the practice of his profession. In the year 1832 he was
appointed assistant surgeon in the United States army, and in the following
year, as already stated, reported for duty at this post, where he remained
until the fort "was abandoned, December 28th, 1836. Some years after he
resigned his surgeoncy, to which he had been promoted in 1838, and
devoted himself to private practice until the time of his death, November
5th, 1859.
At the first meeting of the Rock River Medical Society it was stated
in an address by Dr. Josiah C. Goodhue that Dr. Edmund S. Kimberly
followed Dr. Harmon — who is described as "the pioneer among the medical
faculty of this corner of Illinois" — that Dr. John T. Temple came next,
216 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
Dr. Henry Clark next, and that Drs. W. B. Egan, John W. Eldridge and
Goodhue himself soon followed. All of these gentlemen became more or
less generally known, and the career of each is regarded as adding luster
to the history of the place with which their names are so closely united.
We have thus been rapidly led from the dawning of medical science
in Chicago into the full flush of the morning, and have about arrived at
the event we have been anticipating, the arrival of Dr. Daniel Brainard,the
projector of Rush Medical College. Dr. Brainard arrived in Chicago in
the month of September, 1835. He was born in Oneida county, New
York, May I3th, 1812, and after receiving a finished common school and
academic education, began the study of medicine, graduating from Jeffer-
son College, Philadelphia, in the year 1834. After practicing for a short
time in Whitesboro, in his native county, he came to Chicago as above,
and in a reasonable time entered upon a lucrative pi'actice, ultimately
becoming deservedly famous as a physician and surgeon.
In the Fall of 1836 Dr. Brainard entered upon the initiatory work of
causing his cherished idea of establishing a medical school or college to
take practical shape. An Act of incorporation was then drawn by him,
assisted by Dr. Goodhue, late of Freeport, in Illinois, but then a resident
of Chicago, which Act was passed by the legislature, and approved by the
Governor March 2d, 1837. Owing, however, to the financial panic which
has been previously noticed, no organization took place until 1843. In
the Autumn of that year a faculty was constituted of Drs. Brainard,
Knapp, McLean' and Blaney, and a sixteen weeks session of the college
was commenced on the second day of December following. Twenty-two
students attended this course, and the lectures were delivered in a small
room on Clark street. Rush Medical College, however, had been estab-
lished for permanency, and temporary quarters were occupied for only a
brief time, when a modest structure costing less than three thousand and
five hundred dollars, was designed by the eminent architect, John M. Van
Osdel, and built upon the corner of Dearborn avenue and Indiana street.
This structure was erected in 1844, and the necessary funds were obtained
by loan and subscription. Of course it was not much of a building, but it
belonged to the corporation and was the small beginning of the greater
things which have followed.
In 1855 *-ne moc^est edifice was found to be so entirely inadequate to
the wants of the college, that the sum of fifteen thousand dollars was
expended in remodeling and enlarging it. After the alterations were made
the building was capable of accommodating two hundred and fifty students.
In this building the college was accommodated until 1867, when a new
edifice was erected upon the vacant part of the college lot, and the old
building was made simply an appendage to the new structure. The cost
of the new building and of the improvements upon the old at this time
was seventy thousand dollars. The college was well supplied with appa-
ratus, library, museum and fixtures. On the ninth of October, 1871,
however, the fire fiend spared not this monument to the interest of the
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 217
medical fraternity and of the people of Chicago in education, but buildings
and all that belonged to them were laid in the sea of ashes. Lectures,
however, recommenced within four days after the fire, and were given in
the amphitheater of the county hospital. Until the erection of the new
building subsequent sessions were held in a temporary building erected on
the grounds of the old hospital. The new and elegant college building
erected after the great fire, stands on .the corner of Wood and West Harri-
son streets, and cost, with the lot, fifty-four thousand dollars.
The faculty of the college has always been eminent for the learning
of the professors. From the organization of the college until the present
its professors at various times, and in addition to those already mentioned,
have been Austin Flint, M. D.; G. N. Fitch, M. D.; William B. Herrick,
M. D.; J. Adams Allen, M. D.; DeLaskie Miller, M. D.; R. L. Rea, M.
D.; Ephraim Ingals, M. D.; A. S. Hudson, M. D.; Joseph Warren, M. D.;
Moses Gunn, M. D.; Henry M. Lyman, M.D.; Edwin Powell, M. D. ; J.
P. Ross, M. D.; E. L. Holmes, M. D.; James Nevins Hyde, M.D.; James
H. Etheridge, M. D.; Charles T. Parks, M. D.; and Walter S. Haines,
M. D.
The first graduate of Rush Medical College, and the only one in
1843-4, was William Butterfield. In 184^-5 the college graduated eleven;
in 1845-6, ten; in 1846-7, nineteen; in 1847-8, thirty ; in 1848-9, eighteen;
in 1849-50, forty-three; in 1850-1, thirty; in 1851-2, thirty-seven:
in 1852-3, thirty-four; in 1853-4, thirty-seven; in 1854-5, forty-one; in
1855-6, forty-one; in 1856-7, forty-one; in 1857-8, thirty-seven; in 1858-9,
thirty-one; in 1859-60, thirty-five; in 1860-1, thirty-seven; in 1861-2,
thirty-five; in 1862-3, fifty-eight; in 1863-4, eighty; m J^4~55 one hun-
dred and fifty-four; in 1865—6, ninety; in 1866-7, seventy-one; in 1867-8,
one hundred and seventeen; in 1868-9, one hundred and eight; in
1869-70, one hundred and thirty-Uiree; in 1870-1, eighty-five; in 1871-2,
seventy-nine; in 1872-3, sixty-three; in 1873-4, seventy -four ; in 1874-5,
seventy-eight; in 1875-6, seventy-seven; in 1876-7, one hundred and
eleven; in 1877-8, one hundred and twenty-eight; in 1878-9, one hundred
and twenty-two.
These magnificent results are the fruits of the genius, devoted appli-
cation and energy of Dr. Brainard, supplemented by the exceptionally
rare talent which aided him, and which has guarded and governed the
institution which he conceived, since his death, which occurred in 1866,
the founder of Rush Medical College being a victim to the scourge of
Asiatic cholera. If, perchance, he may know something of what happens
amidst the scenes of his labors in the advancement of medical knowledge
in Chicago, the progress of the offspring of his thought must be a bright
beam from the sun which now illumines his pathway; but whether he
does or not, his name is brilliant among the revered of Chicago's distin-
guished citizens, and thousands who never heard his name spoken, have
felt the healing touch of those who have gone forth from his college to
brighten the drooping hopes and to crayon the picture of health upon the
218 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
pallid cheek, in the chamber of suffering. This is all the obelisk that such
a man as Dr. Brainard would desire to bear his name down through the
years into the centuries hence.
The Chicago Medical College is organized under a charter granted
to a corporation under the name of Lind University. On the twelfth of
March, 1859, Doctors David Rutter, Ralph N. Isham, Hosmer A. Johnson
and Edmund Andrews met to consider the project of instituting this medical
school. At this meeting an agreement was entered into between the parties
named and the executive committee of the Lind University, and the
Chicago Medical College was established.
The first course of lectures was opened to a class of thirty-three, on
the northwest corner of Market and Randolph streets, under the following
faculty: David Rutter, M. D., Emeritus Professor of Obstetrics and
Diseases of Women and Children; H. A. Johnson, M. D., Professor of
Physiology and Histology; R. N. Isham, M. D., Professor of Surgical
Anatomy and the Operations of Surgery; W. H. Byford, M. D., Profes-
sor of Midwifery and Diseases of Women and Children; E. Andrews, M.
D., Professor of the Principles and Practice in Surgery; J. H. Hollister,
M. D., Professor of Physiology and Histology; N. S. Davis, M. D., Pro-
fessor of the Principles and Practice of Medicine; M. K. Taylor, M. D.,
Professor of General Pathology and Public Hygiene; Titus Deville, M.
D., Professor of Descriptive Anatomy; Dr. Mahla, Professor of Chem-
istry, and Hon. H. G. Spafford, Professor of Medical Jurisprudence.
In 1863 the college erected a building on the corner of State and
Twenty-second streets, which was occupied until 1870, when having also
become the Medical School of the Northwestern University — this arrange-
ment being made in 1867 — the institution was removed to the commodious
and beautiful building on the corner of Prairie avenue and Twenty-sixth
street.
The Chicago Medical College is, according to Doctor Hyde, the
instigator of an innovation upon old practices which Eastern medical schools
are unwilling to acknowledge it the author of. Doctor Hyde says in his
Early Medical Chicago, before referred to: "From the commencement of
the organization of this college, in 1859, it adopted and carried into practice
the graded system of instruction; first dividing the branches embraced in
the curriculum into two series, and classifying the students accordingly.
On the twenty-fifth of April, 1868, the faculty arrranged the curriculum
of the college so that three consecutive courses of lectures should be given,
with a separate group of studies for each of the three years of pupilage.
The honor which is due the Chicago Medical College for the inauguration
of this scheme has been persistently ignored by some of the medical schools
in the East. It is certainly gratifying to note that this step in the direction
of that reform in medical education which is now felt to be imperatively
demanded, was first taken in Chicago."
It is not the first instance of the East attempting to claim the laurels
"belonging to the West. In all that pertains to the ennobling of humanity,
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 219
from our Lovejoy in the conflict of freedom against human bondage, to
our admiration and patronage of all the arts and sciences that lift man up
to God, the West is willing to compete with all that the East can present
for competition. Acknowledging what the fathers have done for the sons,
who have come here with the Puritan principles of Plymouth Rock, the
aristocratic feeling of the Knickerbockers of New York, or the plain open
honesty of New Jersey, the West claims ability to teach the East the
methods of making life the most profitable and enjoyable. In art, science,
and humanity it claims to be, and can substantiate that it is, a rival of
the East.
During the Spring and Summer of 1868 arrangements were perfected
for the establishment of an Eclectic Medical College in Chicago, and the
first course of lectures was inaugurated on the second of November of that
year, in rooms on the north side of Kinzie street, between LaSalle street
and Fifth avenue. The names of the first faculty were Robert A. Gunn,
M. D., Professor of Surgery; H. K. Whitford, M. D., Professor of Theory
and Practice; H. D. Garrison, M. D., Professor of Chemistry and Toxi-
cology; A. L. Claik, M. D., Professor of Obstetrics and Diseases of
Women; John Foreman, M. D., Professor of Anatomy; Hayes C. French,
M. D., Professor of Physiology, and J. F. Cook, M. D., Professor of
Materia Medica.
Thirty students were enrolled and in attendance, and at the close of
the session the degree of Doctor of Medicine was conferred upon ten.
During the Winter of 1868-9 *-ne legislature granted a charter to L. S.
Major, W. D. Atchison, H. C. French, H. D. Garrison, William M. Dale,
H. K. Whitford, A. L. Brown, John Foreman, M. R. Teegarden, R. A.
Gunn, A. L. Clark and J. F. Cook, and their successors, constituting them
a body politic and corporate by the name of The Bennett College of
Eclectic Medicine and Surgery.
L. S. Major, M. D., was chosen President of the Board of Trustees.
More desirable rooms were now obtained for the second course of lectures,
on East Washington street, and the Winter course of 1871 had just been
commenced when the great fire laid the building and its contents in ruins.
The lectures, however, were interrupted but for one week, and were
recommenced in rooms at the corner of State and Twenty-second streets.
Soon after this the building numbered 46 South Clark street
was purchased by the corporation and occupied until the close of the
Winter session of 1874-5. This building having been found too small
and inconvenient for the increasing classes, it was decided in the Fall of
1874 to sell it,and purchase the lots upon which the present college edifice
is located at numbers 511 and 513 State street. Work upon a building
forty by seventy feet, four stories with basement was at once commenced,
and at its completion in the Spring of 1875, the college at once took posses-
sion, with ample accommodations for two hundred and fifty students.
In 1877 a hospital building was erected in the rear of the college with
a capacity for accommodating thirty-five patients, and thus rendering the
22O CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
study of clinical medicine more easy, affording an opportunity to present
to the students all the major operations in surgery with very many of a
minor character.
With the exception of one or two sessions students of both sexes have
been admitted to this college upon terms of perfect equality, and during
the twelve years of lectures fourteen female students have availed them-
selves of the privilege thus offered, and graduated with honor. The whole
number of graduates, including the class of 1880, is three hundred and
eighty-four, embracing representatives of twenty-five different States.
The course of instruction consists of five didactic lectures, with one
hour and a half of clinical instruction daily, and the lecture term com-
mences about the first of October, and continues six calendar months. The
number of teachers or professors is thirteen.
The course of instruction is stated in a recent announcement as
"Eclectic in the legitimate sense of the word. "Adopting improvements by
whomever made, the faculty aim to follow wherever truth and science lead,
and inculcate no other creed."
There are two homoeopathic medical colleges in the city which are
imparting a thorough medical education to their students, and are recog-
nized by that school of practice as among the first in the country. Not
so old as some, they have yet made a record of which those who believe in
the system which they teach, and a large part of the public which believes
that the community is benefited by educational institutions, are abundantly
satisfied with. So far as we know, whatever can be said of other medical
colleges can be said of these. Their graduates are well drilled in the science
of medicine and are generally successful in its practice.
The Chicago Homoeopathic College was chartered in July, 1876, the
incorporators being Leonard Pratt, M. D.; J. S. Mitchell, M.'D.; Albert
G. Beebe, M. D.; Charles Adams, M. D.; Willis Danforth, M. D.; John
W. Streeter, M. D.; R. N. Foster, M. D.; J. H. Buffum, M. D.; E. M.
Hale, M. D.; A. W. Woodward, M. D.; E. H. Pratt, M. D.; John R.
Kippax, M. D., and W. H. Woodyatt, M. D. The large proportion of the
incorporators had previously been members of the faculty of Hahnemann
College, from which they had seceded by reason of a disagreement with
the Board of Trustees. The success of the college has been a surprise, it
is claimed, to its most sanguine friends. The increasing number of gradu-
ates indicates a steadily growing popularity. The college conferred the
degree of Doctor of Medicine upon fifteen in 1876-7, upon twenty-five in
1877-8, and upon thirty-one in 1879-80. This indicates a healthy growth.
The college building is located- on Michigan avenue, and is fully supplied
with all that a first class medical college requires. The college has adopted
the graded-course system of instruction. The faculty is as follows: George
E. Shipman, A. M., M. D., Emeritus Professor of Materia Medica; H. P.
Gatchell, A. M., M. D., Emeritus Professor of Physiology and Hygiene;
Leonard Pratt, M. D., Emeritus Professor of Special Pathology and Diag-
nosis; J. S. Mitchell, A. M., M. D., Professor of Institutes and Practice of
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 221
Medicine and Clinical Medicine; Albert G. Beebe, A. M., M, D., and
Charles Adams, M. D., Professors of Principles and Practice of Surgery
and Clinical Surgery; Willis Danforth, M. D., Professor of Gynoecological
Surgery; John W. Streeter, M. D., Clinical Professor of Diseases of
Women; R. N. Foster, A. M., M. D., Professor of Obstetrics; J. H.
Buffum, M. D., Professor of Ophthalmology and Otology; E. M. Hale,
M. D., Professor of Materia Medica and Therapeutics; A. W. Wood-
ward, M. D., Professor of Analytical and Comparative Materia Medica;
E. H. Pratt, A. M., M. D., Professor of Anatomy; John R. Kippax,
LL. B., M. D., Professor of Principles and Practice of Medicine and
Medical Jurisprudence; R. N. Tooker, M. D., Professor of Physiology
and Diseases of Children; Clifford Mitchell, A. B., M. D., Professor of
Chemistry and Toxicology; N. B. Delamater, M. D., Clinical Lecturer on
Mental and Nervous Diseases; Julia Holmes Smith, M. D., Lecturer
on Diseases of Women; C. F. Bassett, M. D.', Adjunct Professor of
Physiology; F. H. Newman, M. D., Lecturer on Pharmacology; and
C. G. Fuller, Demonstrator of Histology and Microscopy.
Hahnemann Medical College is the older of the two homoeopathic
colleges located here. By an Act of the legislature, approved February
I4th, 1855, George A. Gibbs, Thomas Hoyne, John H. Dunham, David
S. Smith, George E. Shipman, John M. Wilson, William H. Brown,
Joseph B. Dogget, Norman B. Judd, Orrington Lunt, and their associates,
were created a body politic and corporate by the name and style of The
Board of Trustees of the Hahnemann Medical College. Organization
under the Act, however, was not effected until 1859. Since its organiza-
tion it has been steadily prosperous in the main, and at this writing is in a
very nourishing condition, having a faculty of distinguished ability, which
is very devoted -to the interests of medical education. There is connected
with the college a hospital, which furnishes a capital means for the study
of clinical medicine.
The special peculiarities of the plan of teaching adopted in this college
are: First, that the course of instruction given is so largely clinical and
objective that every student is bi'ought face to face with disease in all of
the departments of clinical study; Second, that the college course is the
complement of the daily drill in the hospital; Third, that the corps of
clinical teachers in the Hahnemann Hospital is composed exclusively
of those who belong to its college faculty, and who are thus privileged to
practice what they teach before the eyes, and for the benefit of their pupils;
Fourth, that these hospital facilities are amply sufficient for practical illus-
tration; Fifth, that the lectures delivered in the hospital and college are
given by men of age and experience, of character, learning and reputation,
of honor, dignity and responsibility; and Sixth, that since there are but
eight members in its regular faculty, the students are examined upon those
branches only which they mat reasonably be expected to master during
their pupilage, and which may best fit them for their chosen career.
The following comprise the college faculty: D. S. Smith, M. D.,
222 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZKNS.
Emeritus Professor of Materia Medica and Therapeutics; N. F. Cooke,
LL. D., M. D., Emeritus Professor of Special Pathology and Diagnosis;
A. E. Small, A.M., M. D., Professor of the Theory and Practice of Medi-
cine; R. Ludlam, M. D., Professor of the Medical and Surgical Diseases
of Women, Obstetrics arid Clinical Midwifery; Temple S. Hoyne, A.M.,
M. D., Professor of Materia Medica and Therapeutics, and Clinical Lec-
turer on Venereal and Skin Diseases; George A. Hall, JVL D., Professor
of the Principles and Practice of Surgery, and Clinical Surgery; Harlan
P. Cole, M. D., Professor of General and Surgical Anatomy and Minor
Surgery; W. J. Hawkes, M. D., Professor of Physiology and Clinical
Medicine; C. H. Vilas, M. A., M. D., Professor of Diseases of the Eye
and Ear; C. Gilbert Wheeler, Ph. D., M. D., Professor of Chemistry
and Toxicology.
Besides these there is the following auxiliary corps of professors : S.
Leavitt, M. D., Adjunct Professor of Obstetrics and Clinical Midwifery;
H. B. Fellows, M. D., Professor of the Physiology and Pathology of the
Nervous System; C. E. Laning, M. D.,- Adjunct Professor of Physiology
and Demonstrator of Anatomy; E. S. Bailey, M. D., Microscopist to the
Hahnemann Hospital; C. A. Pusheck, M. D., Adjunct Professor of
Chemistry and Toxicology.
The hospital faculty is constituted as follows: R. Ludlam, M. D.,
Clinical Professor of the Medical and Surgical Diseases of Women;
Temple S. Hoyne, A. M., M. D., Clinical Professor of Venereal and Skin
Diseases; George A. Hall, M. D., Professor of Clinical Surgery; W. J.
Hawkes, M. D., Professor of Clinical Medicine; C. H. Vilas, M. A., M.
D., Clinical Professor of Eye and Ear Diseases; H. B. Fellows, M. D.,
Clinical Professor of the Diseases of the Nervous System; C. E. Laning,
M. D., Clinical Professor of the Diseases of Children; S. Leavitt, M. D.,
Clinical Professor of Obstetrics; together with an auxiliary corps, which
is composed of E. S. Bailey, M. D., Clinical Assistant to the Surgical
Department; C. F. Barker, M. D., Clinical Assistant to the Eye and Ear
Department; George F. Shears, M. D., Resident Surgeon in the Hahne-
mann Hospital.
223
REUBEN LUDLAM, M. D.
In a country like ours intellect and character create the nobility which
all classes delight to honor; and where these are supplemented by signal
success, the world becomes enthusiastic and lavish in its acknowledgment
of superiority. Especially is this true when a man shows the strength of
character and power of mind to discover errors which early teachings,
habit and prejudice have operated, for years, to confirm as sacred truths.
The world to a humiliating extent has been Irving itself over and over,,
from the beginning of time. The theories and example of the parent
become the rules of life with the child, and history repeats itself because
human thought and action follow in the groove which was worn centuries
before. Now and then a mind is strong enough to think for itself and to
devise improvements upon the methods of the past; and to such minds
the world is altogether indebted for its progress.
Dr. Reuben Ludiam is one of the comparatively few men who rise
into the sphere of original thought, and take position in advance of pre-
vailing notions and prejudices. With the utmost respect for the opinions,
of those who differ with him, he courteously follows the path wljich scien-
tific investigation has demonstrated to his mind to be" the correct one, and
is, no doubt, willing that the estimate of the value of his independence to
mankind, shall be wholly based upon the results of his professional career.
Educated in the Allopathic school of medicine, but progressive, when
progress is possible, he early investigated other systems, wishing to dis-
cover the merits and defects of each, and to adopt that which he conceived
to be most closely allied to science. The ability and urbanity of Dr.
Ludiam can scarcely be better shown than by citing the unusual fact in
such cases, that notwithstanding his change of system, and the too preva-
lent jealousy existing between professional men of the different schools of
practice, his reputation as a physician and gentleman is not higher among
his immediate professional brethren than it is among those from whose
system of practice he seceded. As for himself he sincerely deprecates
any uncharitableness and bigotry among medical men, whether found in
the ranks of those who belong to his own school of practice or to other
schools. In 1867 he said to the students of Hahnemann Medical College,
in a lecture on Medical Toleration:
No cause is more likely to arouse an unfortunate antagonism among doctors of
diflerent creeds than the assumption by either party of an exclusive right to medical
224 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
knowledge. Positive refusal to counsel together, direct and emphatic denials of ability
and experience, an open infraction of the ninth commandment, the display^ of ungentle-
manly and unchristian conduct, are some of the fruits of this feeling. Both the
instigators and the victims of this temper of mind are apt to talk harshly, and to put
too much vinegar into their ink when they write for the medical pi ess. Jt is provoking
to have it said that one is stupid, incompetent, unscrupulous; to be classed with im-
postors of every kind, from Paracelsus to the inventor of the last nostrum; to be
rebuked and ridiculed for professing a faith that is founded upon actual experiment and
observation.
It does ruffle one's temper to be chronicled as ignorant of the collateral sciences
by a man who supposes, for example, that the prostate gland is to be found in the brain,
or Peyer's patches in the seat of his patient's pantaloons! But it would be unmanly
and cowardly to yield to abuse in lieu of argument; to be frightened from our post of
dutv by the smell of the burning fuse and the threatened explosion. The rock of con-
fidence between the public and the profession may be blasted and rent in twain ; but, if
we are competent and skillful, and withal self-poised and charitable, we shall escape
without so much as the smell of fire upon our garments.
Because Hahnemann, whose name our college is proud to bear, was opposed,
maligned, abused, and persecuted from city to city, we are not to take up cudgels against
all those who adopt the faith of his enemies, and who continue to wage a war of ex-
termination against us as heretics. Because he was fallible, we need not be ferocious.
Because he was compelled to vindicate his claims to a hearing, we need not, therefore,
be vindictive against those who refuse to recognize him as a great benefactor. Our
circumstances and those which surrounded him are reversed. He stood alone against
the sentiment, tradition, and interest of the whole profession, and the ignorance and
credulity of the people. We have thousands of the best practitioners, and a large share
of an intelligent patronage upon our side. He must feel and fight his way into notice,
while we are privileged to spend our energies in elaborating his discovery, and adapting
It to the physical necessities of mankind.
Harsh words have no healing properties. There is no need to revive the old
bitterness. The incontrovertible logic of facts is the best lever at our command. As
physical injury and dissipation trace their characters in the lineaments of the dissolute
and the abandoned, so the mental fisticuffs in which doctors are prone to indulge, leave
their impress on the mind of the physician.' They subtract from his self-respect, and from
the respectful consideration and confidence that community reposes in him and his calling.
Dr. Ludlam was born in Camden, New Jersey, the seventh of
October, 1831. His father, Jacob W. Ludlam, was a distinguished old-
school physician of that place, who finally removed to Illinois, and died
in Evanston in 1858. While a mere youth, the son began to develop a
talent for medical practice, and commenced a systematic study of medicine
under the instruction of his father, accompanying him in the meantime on
his visits to patients, thus acquiring an early practical as well as theoretical
knowledge of the complicated science to which he was to consecrate
his life. Six years were devoted by him to the special preparation for his
work, and in March, 1852, he graduated from the honored University of
Pennsylvania with the degree of Doctor of Medicine, soon after which he
removed to this city, where he decided that as much as he respected and
even loved the precepts of his father and of his Alma Mater, he would
in the light of reason and in obedience to the dictates of conscience, adopt
the theory and practice of Hahnemann, and do what he could to perfect
them.
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. v 22^
His practice became large, which implies that it was success-
ful. As a physician he is naturally endowed, and probably owes as
much of his early or later success to his sympathetic nature and Christian
virtues as to his thorough knowledge of medicine. Successful, however,
as he was in practice, he yielded to the demand to become the Professor
of Physiology, Pathology and Clinical Medicine in Hahnemann Medical
College when its first Faculty was organized in 1859. After four years he
was transferred to the chair of Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Chil-
dren, one of the most responsible and delicate professorships in a medical
college, and one that he was particularly qualified to fill, having given
special attention to the class of diseases which belong to that department.
He is still a member of the Hahnemann Medical College Faculty, and
enjoys the distinction of being as successful an instructor as he is a
practitioner. .Having devoted a great deal of attention to the study of
uterine surgery, not only in this country, but also in the hospitals of Europe,
and having had years of extensive practice, Dr. Ludlam is the acknowl-
edged leading gynecologist of his school of practice in the United States;
and as such he is a most substantial feature of the high reputation of
Hahnemann Medical College. Nor is his fame dependent upon isolated
illustrations of professional skill; his practice is constant and his success is
what might be ardently hoped for, but scarcely expected. In the removal
and cure of ovarian tumors, his record, measured by the standard of
general success and* failure in such cases, borders upon the marvelous.
Upon investigation it is learned that in his latest twenty cases, every one
has recovered. The only object in mentioning these facts, is to impress
upon young men who aspire to the responsible office of physician, that
success in the most intricate and delicate branches of the profession is
attainable, but that it depends upon a long and arduous course of study and
a most conscientious practice. It is also conspicuously observable in Dr.
Ludlam's career that his mind grasps conditions of disease of which the
books do not treat, and which a common sense observation must reveal.
As a physician to woman, his best introduction to her confidence is his
perfect knowledge of her, physically, mentally and spiritually. In a
lecture to the students of his college, on "Traumatism as a Factor in the
Diseases of Woman," he eloquently says:
Women are more sensitive than men to traumatic influences. If they are not,
like the donkey, more thoroughly beaten, their bruises are more numerous and more
harmful than are those which the men have to bear. Some of these bruises affect the
mental organization of women more especially. The cuts and wounds that come from
the jagged weapons of neglect and improvidence are just as real as those which rained
upon the poor man in Scripture, when he fell by the wayside. The girl whose brother
or whose lover is a vagabond ; the spirited wife whose husband is lazy and shiftless ;
or the mother whose son is a curse instead of a blessing to his family, is certain to
suffer the effects of mental injury. And these effects will implicate her health as well
as her happiness.
There are tracings of disease that are due to a spiritual traumatism; cor.ditions
that come to this class especially from a tearing and contusion of the web of thought
and feeling. For the mind can bleed like the body, and many a poor woman is the
226 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
victim of a concealed internal haemorrhage from wounds of this kind. All the petty
vexations, the wrinkling cares, the disappointments and sorrows, the checks to pride
and ambition, to love of place and of power, of dress and of distinction, the tempta-
tions, the reproaches, and the fret and worry of a woman's life, are so many causes of
a wounded spirit. Their consequences complicate most of the disorders to which these
patients are subject, and constitute a kind of diathesis, or class-bias, which you will
need to study very carefully.
To shield them, in all the vicissitudes of their checkered life, from shock and con-
tusion, and from wounds that are visible and invisible; to bless and to brighten their
experience, and, like the pictures and statuary with which the old Greeks surrounded
their pregnant women, to exert a silent but certain and beautiful influence upon their
unborn offspring; to stop the awful waste of actual and contingent life ; to turn the tide
of popular confidence away from abuses that have no more to do with the skillful
application of the healing art than the self-imposed wounds of the Hindoo have with
the creed of the Christian, is something apart from, and infinitely above the mere pre-
scription of remedies.
As a medical writer Dr. Ludlam is clear and logical, his productions,
whether as lectures, editorial contributions, or in the more substantial form
of books, always showing that clear cut thought and thorough research
which have been the distinguishing features of his whole life and the source
of his success. His writings have been numerous and are regarded as
authority. For six years he was editorially connected with the NORTH
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF HOMCEOPATHY, published in New York, and for
nine years with the UNITED STATES MEDICAL AND SURGICAL JOURNAL,
published in Chicago. In March, 1863, a Chicago house published "A
Course of Clinical Lectures on Diphtheria," of which Dr. Ludlam was the
author, and which was the first medical work ever issued in the North-
west. In 1871, however, another volume, entitled "Clinical and Didactic
Lectures on the Diseases of Women" — an octavo work of six hundred
and twelve pages, from his pen — made its appearance, becoming at
once very popular with the profession and a recognized text-book
in all homoeopathic medical colleges. This work has run through four
large editions, and the fifth came from the press during the year 1880.
It has also been translated into French, and published in Paris by Delahaye,
a still further evidence of the esteem in which it is held. In 1879 Dr.
Ludlam, in addition to his other multifarious duties, translated a work on
Clinical Medicine from the French of Jousset, adding many original and
valuable notes.
In 1868 Dr. Ludlam, to whom the appreciative attention of the East had
been attracted, was tendered the position of Physician for the Home Infirm-
ary for the Diseases of Women, in New York, and two years later he was
elected Professor of Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Children in the
Homoeopathic College of the same city. Satisfied, however, with his field
of labor in the West, he declined these honors. Among the positions of
honor and trust which he has held, may be prominently mentioned the
Presidency of the American Institute of Homoeopathy, of the Chicago
Academy of Medicine, of the Western Institute of Homoeopathy, and of the
Illinois Homoeopathic Medical Society. In addition to these honors, Dr.
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 327
Ludlam was a member of the Medical Department of the Relief and Aid
Society, which after the great fire had the distribution of the charities and
the care of the needy. The Doctor was the only Homoeopathic physician
appointed to the discharge of the very delicate duties of that responsible
position. When the present State Board of Health was created by an
Act of the legislature, Governor Cullom appointed Dr. Ludlam a mem-
ber of it, which position he still holds, being the representative of his school
of practice on the Board.
Dr. Ludlam has been twice married. His first wife, Anna M. Porter,
of Greenwich, New Jersey, died three years after marriage. He after-
ward married Harriet G. Parvin, of New York, by whom he has a son
who bears his father's name.
228
HENRY OLIN, M. D.
Henry Olin, M. D., one of the most distinguished oculists and
aurists in the country, was born at Concord, Erie county, New York,
August 1 8th, 1835, and is the son of William and Marie Olin. His
father, who was of the Vermont Olin family, which contributed so much
brilliancy and renown to the Albany, New York, legal bar, was an enter-
prising farmer, with an active intellect and possessed of an abundant store
of general information. The childhood of young Olin was spent in
Springy i lie and Boston in his native State, and in these places, more
especially at Springville, he enjoyed most excellent educational advan-
tages, laying a foundation for his later medical acquirements and his
subsequent brilliant professional success. His taste and peculiar fitness
for the medical profession developed quite early in life, and we find him,
when a young man, apprenticed to a druggist, and devoting himself to
the study of the business with an application that promised a full under-
standing of its intricacies and a wider field of usefulness. It was not sufficient
. that he knew what the effect of a drug upon the human organism was,
but he sought to know the reason of its peculiar action under certain
circumstances, and instead of being a mechanical prescription clerk, he
was from the beginning of his connection with the drug business, an
intelligent and laborious medical student and investigator, showing that
deep interest in the details of medical science and that conscientious dis-
charge of duty which have always distinguished him as a practitioner of
his profession.
In course of time he entered regularly upon the study of medicine,
which he pursued at Buffalo, New 'York, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
thoroughly fitting himself for his profession, and distinguishing himself
throughout as a hard working and exceptionally forward student. Having
completed his collegiate medical education, he at once entered into prac-
tice, with considerable greater success than usually attends the beginning
of a professional career. His competency was at once acknowledged,
and this supplemented by his integrity, at once won him an enviable
place in the esteem and confidence of the public. For three or four
years from 1860, Dr. Olin conducted a drug store in connection with his
practice, but finding that the claims of his profession were quite sufficient
to tax his mental and physical powers as heavily as they could judiciously
be called upon to stand, he abandoned the drug business, and has since
/
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 229
confined himself exclusively to his practice, with the exception of attend-
ing to his duties as lecturer on the diseases of the eye and ear in Bennett
Medical College. For fifteen years Professor Olin has made the treat-
ment of this class of diseases a specialty, and has not only become the
leading oculist and aurist in the West, but also an authority in this branch
of medical science throughout the world. In 1870 he made a most
important discovery in the physiology of the ear, which revolutionized
a long accepted theory. While making an examination of a person who
had an ear difficulty, he found there was congenital absence of the tympanic
membrane; and yet normal hearing existed. Upon further inquiry and
investigation, he found many other cases where the tympanic membrane
was wanting, from idiopathic and traumatic causes, but still the persons
had normal hearing. This led to further investigation, which resulted in
demonstrating that this membrane is inelastic fibrous tissue, not vibrating
on the undulating motion of the atmosphere as had previously been sup-
posed. Professor Olin's discovery has been recently corroborated by the
testimony of Professor Helmholtz, of Germany, an eminent physiologist,
who has experimented with like results.
In the Fall of 1870, Professor Olin removed to Chicago, where he
has since resided, and where his ability, researches, accomplishments and
character have become a conspicuous part of medical history and medical
education. As a lecturer in Bennett Medical College, he has added to
the high character of the institution, and has won the esteem of hundreds
of students who have been fortunate enough to sit under his instruction.
He is also a trustee of the college.
The importance of a better education of physicians in the delicate
branch of the profession to which Professor Olin has been for so many
years devoting his life, naturally and powerfully presented itself to his
mind, and so deeply impressed him, that he exerted himself to found in
Chicago a college of Ophthalmology and Otology, of which he secured
the incorporation in 1878. The institution supplies a much needed want,
and will be an appropriate monument to the energy, judgment and even
humanity of its founder.
Professor Olin is prominently connected with several medical societies,
among which are the National Eclectic Medical Association, the Illinois
Eclectic Medical Society, the Wisconsin Medical Society, and the Chicago
Eclectic Medical and Surgical Society.
In 1874 he was married to Delia Miles, who is a lady of superior
excellence of heart and mind, and a light in the home of her busy and
distinguished husband; and if ever a man needed the quiet retreat of
home, in all of its most perfect peace and loveliness, where he can escape
the exhausting demands of professional life, it is he who, like Professor
Olin, is driven tj the limit of endurance by his immense private practice,
to say nothing of his duties as a professor. It is a matter of astonish-
ment to all who are familiar with his habits of industry, that he can
withstand the drain of such an active life. His endurance, however, may
230 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
be largely attributed to a faultless nervous system, the lack of which is
the cause of so many physical wrecks among our busy men. In such
delicate operations as the practice of the oculist and aurist necessitates,
perfectly steady nerves are the only guaranty of safety to the patient,
and necessarily of success to the practitioner. To the extraordinary
development of nerve, therefore — prominently noticeable in all of his
operations — Professor Olin is as much indebted for his ability to perform
a prodigious amount of labor as he is for a large measure of his profes-
sional success. Yet a young man, many additional, and even still more
brilliant achievements may reasonably be expected to mark his professional
career, and benefit the anxious class of sufferers to whose usually distress-
ing maladies the oculist and aurist ministers.
An awkward, yet real compliment to Professor Olin — but one that
naturally has given him much annoyance — has been the assumption of
his name by an ignorant medical pretender of this city. Among all the
medical profession he was the victim of this unparalleled outrage, a fact,
which however troublesome to him, goes to show the standing of the
man and the influence of his name.
231
DR. JAMES E. LOW.
The lack of original thought and that restless activity of inquiring
and executive genius which in other callings is termed enterprise, has
long been noticed and lamented in the learned professions. There is
a seductive charm about old theories and methods which too often enslave
the professional man through his prejudices, and binding him to the im-
perfect past, forbids both his own development and that of the sciences
and civilization with which he has to do. In the midst of this general
fixedness and long established unquestioning conformity to rules and
usages, an original and independent mind occasionally flashes its thought,
and converts the seemingly impossible into the most beneficial utility.
It leads progress against the opposition of matured prejudice, the world's
unbounded egotism and the proverbial apathy of mankind. Undismayed
by such discouragements, it maintains the remembrance of the world's
progress in the past, and centers its energies upon making a like advance
in the future.
Such minds scarcely recognize that there are impossibilities. Un-
trammeled by the conclusions of others, they penetrate mysteries; study
the laws of nature; formulate theories and demonstrate their falsity or
practicability; originate new applications of old principles, and accurate
application of new ones, and proceed patiently and laboriously in the
development of the latent forces of nature, science and mechanism, until
there are none to dispute the actual accomplishment of great results to
the world. Whatever progress our race has made it owes to the inde-
pendence, great natural endowments, stucliousness and energy of such
minds. From the science of government down to the minute details of
human life this is true. Independent thinkers and brave actors have
evolved the best systems of government from original chaos, and later
crude notions; they have exploded false theories, made innovation upon
primitive practices and instituted perfection in the place of erroneous
conception and faulty execution in science, mechanics, social, religious and
political economy, and in the discharge of all the duties devolving upon
men.
It is to such minds as have devised free government, divested religion
of useless, irksome detail and embarrassing sacrifice, perfected educational
systems, given us the locomotive and the throbbing telegraph; and made
civilization pulsate, as if with unnatural excitement, by the grand harvest
232 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
of discovery and invention, that we are indebted for the glow of our
present American civilization. Minds like these never conclude their
studious research for knowledge; they are as ceaselessly active as the
heart in its life-giving pulsations, and grasp the improbable with an energy
that surmounts difficulties and conquers opposition.
Dr. James E. Low, one of the most distinguished dentists in the
West, and the 'subject of this sketch, belongs to the class of men who have
aided the world to advance. His mind is original in conception, inde-
pendent in demonstration, and remarkably logical in reaching results.
The most studious of men, but possessed of professional acquirements
which would be thought to satisfy the most ardent ambition, he is accus-
tomed to remark, with unmistakable evidence of sadness: "There is so
much to learn, and so little time to learn it, that I feel like an atom floating
in the eternity of space; the further I float, the more boundless becomes
the space, with its universe of unacquired knowledge." It is a remarka-
ble exception to find one who has already distinguished himself in his
profession, and whose physical strength is taxed to its limit of endurance,
by his immense practice, thus devotedly applying himself to the acquire-
ment of knowledge that: will benefit mankind. In following this bent
of his richly endowed mind, he has made many improvements in dentistry,
one of the most important of which is the restoring of partial loss of
tee'th without a plate — known as Low's New Method — which was one
of the impossibilities of the profession, until he demonstrated its absolute
certainty of accomplishment. By this method teeth are permanently
attached in the mouth by water-tight, immovable pure gold bands, leav-
ing space for cleansing and rinsing, and thus enabling the wearer to keep
the artificial teeth as clean as those that are natural. Under this method
the roof of the mouth is free from the incumbrance of a plate, and the
natural teeth adjacent to the false are in nowise injured.
Had Dr. Low stopped here, he would have earned the gratitude
of those who need such, ministrations as his profession bestows. But his
restless genius went still further. It led him to invent a new and suc-
cessful method for restoring teeth that were frail, and which under ordinary
circumstances would be doomed to extraction. Under this method the
portion of the tooth that is gone is restored by looping it with, gold,
using cement attachment, thus giving strength to the frail walls that could
not be filled. Many patients have been attracted to him by this humane
and useful invention, and even those who have never suffered the agony
of imperfect teeth will be guided by sympathy for those who are thus
unfortunate to thank the inventor of a method which makes the forceps
of less universal use.
Devoid of selfishness — strangely so — Dr. Low is desirous that every
one should have perfect teeth. Judging from his speech and his acts, it
would be concluded that if no one were under the necessity of entering
his office he would be the happiest of men. Indeed he has attempted to
tell the public how to preserve their teeth. Notwithstanding the press
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 233
<
of his large practice, he has somehow found time to write a work which
is entitled "The Decay and Preservation of the Teeth, as Connected with
the Laws of Health." In this work he carefully explains how best to
care for the teeth, how to live, what to eat, when to eat and generally
how to preserve such health as will result in a perfect physical organiza-
tion. This work coming from such a man is one of the most valuable
that can be placed in the hands of the people.
Dr. James E. Low is the son of Rinold Low and Susan Hay ward,
and was born in Otsego county, in the State of New York, in the year
1835. ^e *s °f French descent, his paternal grandfather coming from
France to New York city at an early day, and afterward removed to
Otsego county, becoming one of the pioneers of the town of Milford.
The childhood of young Low was spent in his native county, and in con-
sequence of the death of his father, which occurred when the son was
only six years of age, his mother was left with six children, and with but
limited means for their support, necessitating an early application of our
subject to labor. He was thus compelled to support himself and provide
for his own education. Nature had richly endowed him, however, with
a spirit of determination, and he sought what educational facilities were
afforded by the common schools, working nights and mornings lor his
board. In course of time he accumulated enough money to enable him
to enter Cooperstown Seminary, in Otsego county, where he applied
himself most dilligelitly to study. After leaving this institution he
began — in 1857 — the study of dentistry and medicine, and since that time
has taken several medical courses.
In 1865 our subject came to Chicago, and his career as a dental prac-
titioner has been steadily upward, until, although a comparatively young
man, he occupies a position among the very foremost in his profession.
In 1870 he became a member of the Illinois State Dental Society, and in
1873 of the American Dental Society, and is now a member of the Chi-
cago Dental Society; and in all ways he has ever shown his great interest
in and love for the advancement of dental science.
In 1856 Dr. Low was married at Milford, Otsego county, New York,
to Roena Knapp, — daughter of A. C. Knapp, a well knov/n and much
respected gentleman — a lady of varied endowments and attainments.
Two daughters — Maud, born July 241!!, 1858, and Mabel, born Sep-
tember 20th, 1861 — have blessed this union, and complete a most charming
family circle.
In the life thus outlined is found in prominent relief some qf the most
valuable traits of human character. Solely by his own exertions Dr.
Low has reached his present eminence in his profession and achieved
influence as a member of society. His persistent determination has suc-
cessfully carried him through many discouraging experiences, and his
laborious application to study and business has won him the confidence
of the public and crowned him with a reasonable degree of affluence.
Courage, persistency, studiousness, application and a keen realization of
234 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
his responsibilities in all of the relations of life have enabled him to
achieve much and grandly.
Such men are not only useful in the special paths they have marked
out for themselves, and in developing particular sciences and perfecting
beneficial methods, but the silent influences of their lives are of inestimable
value to the community. Youth who seek examples among the world's
prominent men are aided by the sight of the footprints of those who
have toiled up the steep of eminence, aided almost wholly by their own
abilities, to surmount difficulties which otherwise might discourage and,
perhaps, wreck. Among the happiest thoughts of one who achieved
prominence against vast odds, must be the thought that, perhaps, his
hardships and triumphs may be the source of vital encouragement to
multitudes of young men who are struggling as he once struggled.
235
EMANUEL HONSINGER, D. D. S.
Among those who have achieved prominence as men of marked
genius and substantial worth in Chicago, the subject of this sketch, Dr.
Emanuel Honsinger, occupies an enviable position. The architect of his
own fortune, he has builded well, substantially, and even brilliantly, and
in his profession and as a citizen enjoys in an unusual degree the respect
and confidence of the community with whose interests he has been closely
identified for nearly a third of a century. But while thus widely known
and universally esteemed for striking attributes of character, the genius
of the man compels a profound admiration by those who are cognizant
of the details of his life and achievements, which have been peculiarly
distinguished for their usefulness. In the development of dental science
and the perfection of its practice not only in Chicago, but in the new
West, certainly no one has accomplished more than he, or stands higher
in the councils of his profession. From his first entrance upon the study
of dentistry, through the many years of his extensive practice, until now,
he has sought to improve upon old methods, and has devoted himself to
dental advancement with a devotion which has been equaled only by his
ability.
Dr. Honsinger was born at Henrysburg, Canada East, September
1 2th, 1823, and is the son of James and Margaret Honsinger. It was not
long after his birth, however, that the family removed to a farm at Cham-
plain, Clinton county, New York, where the boy toiled in the thoroughly
uncongenial occupation of farm life until he was seventeen years of age.
There was little in agriculture to satisfy the restless activity of such
a mind, and his natural abilities sought for a more extended field of opera-
-tions. To have curbed the propensities of his youthful, ardent nature
and confined the expansion of his active intellect, by forbidding him
more ample room than the routine of farm life afforded, would have been
a crime against him and a deliberate interference with the claims of
society upon individual mind. His father doubtless recognized this, and
when the lad, at the age of seventeen, requested that he might turn his
face in the direction of his aspirations and his feet into the path which
would lead to more certain usefulness and prominence, he consented.
Without capital or influence he bade farewell to an agricultural life, and
stepped forth into the world for himself.
Naturally he recognized that an education was his first necessity
236 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
and by hiring himself out mornings and evenings, he was enabled to
secure several years of schooling. He had the gift of perseverance as
well as a genius for invention, and allowed no hours to go to waste. He
had been taught by his father to improve the time. Industry was an
inheritance. He made a profitable investment of it. Without being
settled respecting the particular vocation to which he should devote his
life, he made up his mind that he would make the most of his opportuni-
ties, follow his bent, and wait upon circumstances. With unremitting
application to whatever his hands or his head found to do, he went
steadily and vigorously forward. He was alternately pupil and teacher.
He earned the means for obtaining knowledge by imparting it to others,
and his schooling was all the more thorough and comprehensive from
this fact. Young Honsinger learned more in the teacher's chair than on
the pupil's bench. He secured to himself the fundamentals of education,
and was respectably well furnished for life's campaign.
Early in life he developed a marvelous faculty for mechanism, con-
structing before he had even attained his majority a drum, flute, dulcimer
and violin, without any instruction, and as if by inspiration. Indeed,
when only fourteen years of age, he made for himself a pair of boots,
the lasts, cutting, fitting and sewing being the work of his own untrained
ingenuity. Another mechanical achievement of his boyhood's days was
the construction of a sleigh, which was pronounced to be as perfect as
any ever made in the shop in which he did the work. Such genius was
of a very unusual order, and naturally attracted general attention. Its
possibilities were properly regarded as practically limitless, and it has not
disappointed either its early or its later admirers.
After years of study and teaching, experiments in mechanism, and
planning for the future, he resolved to adopt the profession of dentistry,
and at once became a student under Dr. H. J. Paine, of Troy, New York.
He made rapid progress in his studies, and soon excelled his employer in
all those branches which require mechanical ingenuity and a dexterous
hand. While yet an apprentice the necessity of more perfect tools was
impressed upon his mind, and the first result was the construction of
a reacting drill, which does its work with great rapidity, and ease to the
patient.
In the Autumn of 1847, he opened an office in Troy, and in a few
years was engaged in a lucrative practice. It was not long before his
inventive faculty bestowed another blessing alike upon the profession and
the public, in the construction of a rotating gum lance, so contrived as to
make the entire circuit of the isolated tooth, and effect its object without
cutting the gum. He very unselfishly donated this merciful improvement
upon all other lances, to the profession, and its merits were quickly recog-
nized by the most eminent dentists. While in Troy, he also invented
what is well known in dental circle., as Honsinger's Combined Blowpipe
and Lathe, a health as well as labor saving contrivance of acknowledged
merit.
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 237
Notwithstanding his success in the East, Dr. Honsinger resolved to
come West, and arrived in Chicago in April, 1853. Securing quarters
at number 77 Lake street, he began business, remaining in this location for
nearly thirteen years, a conspicuous illustration of his steadfastness of
purpose and his strength of character. Many were the changes wrought
about him in those years, and many were the discouragements, but while
others lost heart he remained firm, and through unflinching courage,
uprightness of character and a full knowledge of his business, won the
victory. During all these years of the city's growth, he has grown with
it, winning the esteem and confidence of both the public and his profes-
sional brethren, until he has reached a professional eminence which should
be quite sufficient to satisfy the most ardent ambition. Devoted to science,
frank in his intercourse with the world, and modest in his manner and
claims, his opinions are often sought by his professional associates, and ac-
corded the weight which the opinions of a man with such characteristics
alone can carry with them. His long career in Chicago has been an
exceedingly busy one, but although his time has been so largely assessed
to meet the demands of his large practice, the inventive turn of his mind
has demanded opportunity for more or less exercise. The result has been
that in 1853 Dr. Honsinger invented and constructed an automatic sign,
by which a set of teeth are made to perform a masticatory motion for
twenty-four days without the touch of a hand. In 1861 he made an
improvement in the dentist's spittoon, by which it has been entirely rid
of everything offensive in the way of odor and appearance. The con-
trivance by which this is accomplished is at once both simple and ingenious.
A beautiful rotating arm is so adjusted that its revolutions can be increased
or diminished at pleasure, constantly throwing out water to every part
of the basin. In this way perfect cleanliness is obtained, and no offensive
matter meets the eye of the patient. Another of his important inven-
tions is an Adjustable File Carrier.
In 1863 the Cincinnati Dental College conferred upon him the decree
of Doctor of Dental Surgery, and during the years of his progressive
professional life, he has reflected honor upon his Alma Mater.
Dr. Honsinger was one of the originators of the Illinois Dental
Society — in 1866 — and served two years as vice president. He also
represented this society the same year as one of the first delegates to the
American Dental Association which was held in Boston. He is still
a member of the society and of the American Dental Association.
At the time of the great fire in 1871, he lost all that his office con-
tained— except about three hundred dollars in gold, which was in the
safe — including his instruments, library and fixtures. Since the fire his
office has been at his residence, 318 Park avenue.
In 1879 he united with the Park Avenue Methodist Church, and is
very happy in his church connections. Soon after joining this church
he was appointed one of the trustees, and is most highly esteemed by
the people of that society.
238 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
The Doctor's private life is well worthy the imitation of those of
the rising generation who would reach a position of consequence and
usefulness. He has always obeyed the Apostle's injunction: "Owe no
man anything," and preserved himself from many extravagances and
embarrassments in consequence. He always had a great aversion to
running accounts, and found great gain in doing without everything for
which he had not the means to pay. He never attempted to keep up
appearances, nor made any pretension to a style which his income would
not warrant. He is too proud of his honesty to be vain of a parade that
comes of dishonesty. Economy is a duty with him, frugality an obliga-
tion, temperance a habit, integrity a religion.
He has never resorted to sensational devices for the entrapping and
fleecing of the incredulous. He did not rise at the expense of a fellow-
craftsman, or secure affluence by violating his conscience and sense of
honor. His large business has grown of the soil of public confidence.
His work has always been the best that his skill was capable of, whether
it was done for a wealthy merchant or the humble mechanic, the gor-
geous madame or the homely-dressed sewing-girl.
Repudiating the mercenary notion that the chief end, and the only
mission of man is to make money, the Doctor finds enjoyment in the
wealth he has gained. He makes his pecuniary means a source of happi-
ness. He is fond of his home, his dogs and his gun, and revels in the
joy which he finds in the companionship of the animate and inanimate
creation.
Nor does he admit for a moment the slavish idea that business is to
ride a man to affluence though the next step beyond be to the broken
health which prevents its enjoyment, or into the grave, which gives the
enjoyment to another. He believes that man does not live by business
alone, but by that health of the body which is indispensable to the health
and development of the mind. In this respect, the Doctor is a pattern
for thousands who are wearing away their lives at a sacrifice of present
enjoyment, if not of conscience.
Few lives have been in all respects so satisfactory as the life we have
thus briefly sketched. Grounded in principle, multiplied through indus-
try and strengthened by natural abilities, the acts whose aggregate
compose it, have been exceptional in character and in results. Society,
the profession in which it has been spent, and indeed every human inter-
est, are incalculably indebted to the influences of such a life as that of
Dr. Emanuel Honsinsjer.
NICOLAI HARDING PAAREN, M. D.
Dr. N. H. Paaren was born on the fourth of November, 1832, in the
city of yEroeeskjrebing, on the Island of y£rce, in the kingdom of Den-
mark. He is the oldest of four brothers, sons of Hans Henrich Paaren
and Anna Maria Paaren, whose maiden name was Harding. During
thirty years previous to his death, his father occupied a prominent position
in the government of the Island, and during his long career of usefulness
acquired considerable renown over a large extent of country. The child-
hood of Dr. Paaren was spent at his home, where he received a good
common school education. Having evinced a decided preference for agri-
cultural pursuits, his father sent him, at the age of seventeen years, to the
agricultural institute of Hofmansgave, on the Danish Island of Funen,
where, after three years, he finished a thorough practical and theoretical
study of agriculture, including the dairy and. sheep husbandry. In the
course of his studies he developed a preference for the further study of
breeding and management of the domestic animals of the farm, including
the diseases to which these are subject. The father, ever ready to encour-
age the inclination of his son, sent him to Copenhagen in 1853. Having
two years thereafter undergone a preliminary examination at the Univer-
sity, he studied five years at the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural Col-
lege, devoting most of his time to veterinary science. In the year 1860,
after the death of his father, he embarked for St. Croix, of the Danish
West India Islands, where he practiced as a veterinary surgeon during two
years, and held the position of government veterinarian for the district of
Fredericksted, including half of the Island of St. Croix. The climate not
being agreeable to his health, he embarked in 1862 for the United States.
During the war of the rebellion, the United States government was
sadly in need of veterinary surgeons for the army. Presuming that he
might be of service as a veterinarian, Dr. Paaren sought and obtained an
audience with the President, Abraham Lincoln. After a few humorous
expressions, characteristic of the man, Mr. Lincoln penned a few words
to Secretary Stanton of the War Department, who again wrote to the
Quarter-Master General of the Army, recommending the appointment of
Dr. Paaren as Chief Veterinary Surgeon of the Army of the Potomac,
in which position he was attached to the headquarters of the commanding
general of the army from the time of the battle of Antietam until after
the memorable battle of Gettysburg. About this time an extensive depot
240 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
was established at Giesboro' Point, on the Potomac river, three miles
from Washington, with capacity for seventy-five thousand horses. All
horses bought by the government were sent here for re-inspection and
distribution to the army; and all sick, wounded and disabled horses were
received here from the front for 'treatment and recuperation. As Chief
Veterinary Surgeon and Special Inspector of the Cavalry Bureau, Dr.
Paaren, aided by an ample corps of assistants, was responsible to the War
Department for the proper and efficient treatment of a daily average of
over three thousand sick and disabled horses, during the last three years
of the war.
Since November, 1866, Dr. Paaren has been located in Chicago,
where, besides a successful practice, his old love for agricultural matters has
brought him in intimate connection with the agricultural press. Through
the columns of THE WESTERN RURAL, of the NATIONAL LIVE STOCK
JOURNAL since its commencement, and of THE PRAIRIE FARMER, for
more than fifteen years, he has disseminated, with unusual ability and lib-
erality, valuable practical instruction in the proper treatment and manage-
ment of domestic animals in health and disease. Thus his name and
reputation have become known to every farmer and owner of live stock in
the Northwest, and his professional advice and services are called for,
through the agricultural press, and large daily mails, from every State and
Territory in the Union. Dr. Paaren is officially appointed as Veterinary
Advisor of the Illinois State Agricultural Department. He is a graduate
of Bennett Eclectic Medical College of Chicago; is Secretary, by re-elec-
tion, of the Chicago Eclectic Medical and Surgical Society, and is a perma-
nent member of the National Eclectic Medical Association. In the year
1864, he married, in Chicago, Mary Little, of Brooklyn, New York, who
is a native of Longford, Ireland.
Dr. Paaren is a close student of veterinary and medical science, and a
gentleman of exceptional general intelligence. As a writer he is clear in
expression, accurate in statement and' exceedingly happy in style. His
thoughts are clothed in that plain and pure English, which is the beauty
of our best English compositions. His articles upon veterinary and agricul-
tural subjects are extensively copied by journals devoted to those interests,
and are regarded as authority. His position in this respect cannot be better
illustrated than by a reference to the high character of the publications to
which he is a regular contributor, and also to the fact that some of the
best publishing houses of the country have repeatedly proffered him most
liberal terms for a practical veterinary work from his pen. Having been
one of the very few men in this country to lift veterinary practice into the
realm of science, and being a graduate of one of our regular medical insti-
tutions, a work of this character would command very great confidence.
It may, indeed, be truthfully said that Dr. Paaren is entitled to the position
of being the most thorough and accomplished practitioner in his profession
in the United States. The honors already bestowed upon him are indica-
tive of the character of his future.
341
N. S. DAVIS, M. D.
Dr. N. S. Davis was born January 9th, 1817, in the town of Greene,
Chenango county, New York. He was a farmer's son, and enjoyed few
opportunities for literary culture. Following the pursuits of his father,
he grew up with simple tastes and an earnest purpose.
The district school of the neighborhood supplied him with the rudi-
mentary branches of an English education, and he afterward spent six
months in Cazenovia Seminary, studying mathematics, the natural sciences
and Latin. He then entered the office of Dr. Daniel Clark, of Smith-
ville Flats, as a medical student. The following Winter he attended the
lectures in the College of Physicians and Surgeons of the Western dis-
trict of New York, at Fairfield. At the close of the session he continued
his reading in the office of Dr. Thomas Jackson, of Binghamton, New
York, where he spent the two succeeding Summers, returning to the col-
lege at Fairfield each Winter. In January, 1837, he was admitted to the
degree of Doctor of Medicine, being then twenty years of age.
Upon the recommendation of the Faculty, he was invited to enter
upon the practice of his profession as the successor of Dr. Daniel Chat-
field, of Vienna, Oneida county, New York. He remained there only
until the July following, when he removed to Binghamton, where he
remained ten years, gaining a strong hold upon the confidence of his
professional brethren, and endearing himself bv his fidelity and kindness
to a large circle of friends.
During his residence in Binghamton, his contributions to the medical
journals of the day, and his interest in medical organizations made him
known to the profession as an earnest student and thinker. In the Spring
of 1847, ^n Davis removed to New York City and commenced practice.
At the close of the Winter session of the College of Physicians and
Surgeons of that city, he was appointed lecturer, for the Spring course,
on Medical Jurisprudence. In 1848, he commenced the publication of
the ANNALIST, a medical journal, of which he continued to be the editor
and proprietor until his removal to the West.
In July, 1849, the Faculty and Trustees of Rush Medical College,
of Chicago, offered Dr. Davis the chair of Physiology and Pathology
which he accepted, having long desired to become a resident of the
West. The following year the Professor of Practical Medicine tendered
his resignation, and Professor Davis was called upon to fill the vacancy.
242
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
In the Summer of 1850, he delivered a course of six lectures upon
the sanitary condition of the city, which was then most deplorable. He
discussed more particularly the water supply and sewerage, and there is
little doubt that these lectures had much to do in arousing public senti-
ment on these subjects. The system of sewerage proposed by him was
essentially the same as that subsequently adopted.
In the development of the social and material interests of our city,
Dr. Davis has also been active. He early became associated with a num-
ber of our prominent citizens in the organization of a society for the
systematic relief of the poor. This was conducted for a number of
years, accomplishing a great deal of good. It was finally transferred to
the relief department of the Young Men's Christian Association.
No man has labored more earnestly than he against intemperance.
On all appropriate occasions, he has battled courageously with this
monstrous evil. He has not restricted his efforts to prevention alone, but
has sought to cure confirmed drunkards. He was one of the founders
of the Washingtonian Home, for the reformation of inebriates.
In the Autumn of 1850, the Illinois General Hospital of the Lakes
was opened in the old Lake House, with Drs. Davis and J. V. Z. Blaney
as the physicians. The twelve beds with which the wards of this hospital
were furnished were procured from the proceeds of the lectures previ-
ously alluded to. In the Spring of 1851, the institution was transferred
to the Sisters of Mercy, who have ever since continued its management.
Dr. Davis was one of the originators of the Chicago Medical Society.
He was also one of the earliest members of the Illinois State Medical
Society. His interest in the American Medical Association has always
continued, and in 1864, he was elected to its Presidency.
On coming to the West, Dr. Davis gave his hearty support to medi-
cal literature, contributing frequently to the NORTHWESTERN MEDICAL
AND SURGICAL JOURNAL. In 1855, he became one of its editors, and
subsequently assumed its entire control. He afterward transferred his
interest in this journal to the late Dr. Brainard, and began the publication
of the CHICAGO MEDICAL EXAMINER, a monthly of sixty-four pages.
The influence and example of Dr. Davis have always been upon the
side of virtue and good morals. Since his sixteenth year he has been
a constant member of some branch of the Methodist Church, taking an
active part generally in sustaining all moral and religious institutions.
His public and his private charities have been large and continuous.
It is not perhaps, too much to say of Dr. Davis, that he stands among
the very first of his profession in this country. This prominence, how-
ever, has been reached by unremitting toil and unwearied effort. His
teachings, which have been listened to by thousands of young men, have
not been without their power and influence.
243
CHAPTER XVII.
THE BENCH AND LEGAL PROFESSION.
It is sometimes said that in America alone is there an aristocracy of
lawyers, reference being had by such expression to the numerous public
positions of honor and trust which are filled by members of this profes-
sion; and it is true that in no other country in the world do lawyers hold
so many public offices. In our State and national legislatures, they largely
predominate over all other callings combined, and at the head of nearly
every public movement the lawyer takes his place as naturally as if born
for the position. Nor is there anything unnatural in this in a country where
the race for position is open to all, and in which the fleetest wins the
prize. If there is an aristocracy of lawyers among us, it is an aristocracy
of mind and culture, and its existence is confined to a republic, because
amidst such surroundings, mind and not birth, achieves the brightest laurels
that society has to bestow. Our eminent lawyers, as a rule, have come
from humble origins, and have hewn their way, single-handed, through
mountains of difficulties to eminence and affluence; but from whatever
station of life they may have started, the pathway to greatness was through
the rough rocks and never through soft and laughing flower beds. An
eminent lawyer once described the lot of the profession as a compulsion to
work hard, live well and die poor; and really this might be an appropriate
epitaph upon the tombstones that mark the last resting places of the ma-
jority of deceased lawyers of distinction. When less successful men are
sleeping and recreating, the lawyer is burning the midnight oil, and strain-
ing an already overworked intellect and eyes that are heavily burdened.
It is related of Rufus Choate, that he would remain in his office night
after night, way into the small hours, and the passer-by could see the
flickering of the light through the old fashioned panes in Boston's Old
State House. To prevent such studious application from achieving success
in a land where the canopy of republicanism protectingly covers every
cradle and every soul, inviting the mind to achieve whatever its own
strength will sanction, is something that is impossible. If there is danger
to popular liberty in the selection of so many from this brilliant profession
to enact and execute American laws — and there are those who foolishly
imagine that they can discern such danger — the fault is not with the pro-
fession, but with the Creator who has invested developed mind with a
charm that mankind cannot resist, and with our form of government which
recognizes the right of the best intellects to occupy the proudest positions.
244 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
It is not meant to be affirmed here that lawyers are superior in intellect
and mental training to all other classes of professional men; but it is evident
that while in the other professions there are hard working members, there
is no such need of the constant mental strain which is imposed upon the
successful lawyer, and, consequently, it is not endured by other professional
men as a class. With exceptions that are so few that they may almost be
termed rare, men will not exert themselves to an extraordinary degree,
either mentally or physically, unless forced by circumstances to do so; and
this explains the reason of so large a number of lawyers becoming promi-
nent outside of their profession, and so few of other professional men
becoming distinguished as politicians, statesmen and general leaders. But
/admitting that the other professions contain many who are as competent
as those in the profession of law, to fill any position in the gift of the
people, but who are still unknown outside of their professional walks,
what is the explanation? It will be found, we think, in the fact that law-
yers are brought constantly in contact with the public in such a way as to
make it apparent that their professional life does not in any way unfit them
for the arduous duties of an official life. It is different with the physician and
minister, whose callings are of that peculiar nature that while their abilities
are acknowledged, the belief attains that they would not care to breast the
turbulent current of an official public life; and usually they do not. The
editor is peculiarly constituted and as peculiarly situated. A power behind
the throne, the great public knows him only through his paper, and with
comparatively few exceptions in the history of the profession, the editor,
with his signal fitness for official position, prefers the more influential
station of the molder of public opinion. All things considered, therefore}
the lawyer, of all professional men, is the favored of the professional
classes, in the way of political promotion and acknowledged leader-
ship.
These are some of the grounds which sustain what some are pleased
to call an aristocracy of lawyers — an aristocracy whose members have
received their titles from nature or won them by honest application and
toil; and until the laws of cause and effect shall have become subverted,
superior mental culture, among any class, will never harm a republic to the
extent of a hair's breadth.
Chicago, almost from the very beginning of her modern history, has
been distinguished for the brilliancy and profoundness of her lawyers. The
legal mind was as quick to perceive the outlook of Chicago as was any
other mind, and it came early to mingle its light with that of kindred
minds, to illumine the pathway of progress. Some of our most eminent
lawyers still live to tell of their early experience in the hamlet by the lake
side, when the wolf howled in the hearing of the judge, and the strolling
Indian looked upon the paraphernalia of justice, and wondered what it all
meant; and he has been wondering ever since. Some of those whose
counsel was golden, and whose speech in the halls of justice was silver,
have been gathered with the fathers, but their footsteps will never be
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
245
washed from the sands. Space will allow the mention of but few of
either the dead or living, but the excellence of mind and heart of those who
may receive notice, is fairly representative of the bar and bench of Chicago.
Giles Spring, who became Judge Spring, and who died a few years
since, was one of the early lights of this bar. Judge Spring was a very
remarkable man, although he was what may be termed a natural lawyer,
rather than a book lawyer. He would intuitively grasp the merits of a
case at once, and in a few words set it forth to the simplest understanding,
In the trial of cases he was nervously active, grasping points quickly, and
although his language was not the best of old English, his rapidity of
thought and rapid expression constituted him a charming power.
Lisle Smith was also one of the pioneer lawyers, and although not
profound as a lawyer, was brilliantly eloquent, and highly successful as a
practitioner.
Isaac N. Arnold and Judge Goodrich, who still live to recount their
many triumphs, were ornaments of Chicago's infant bar. Mr. Arnold
was particularly distinguished as a criminal lawyer, and for many years
was engaged in the defense of all important criminal cases. He is now
retired from practice, and is living upon the income of a handsome fortune
which he accumulated in the practice of his profession.
Judge Goodrich came to Chicago in May, 1834, and soon after formed
a copartnership with, A. N. Fullerton. The firm dealt largely in real estate
and accumulated a considerable fortune. Afterward he dissolved partner-
ship with Mr. Fullerton, and formed a copartnership with Judge Spring,
and this continued until shortly before his election as judge. Judge Good-
rich was a severe sufferer in the panic of 1837, losing, in fact, all he had
accumulated. But the sterling honesty of the man forbade him following
the advice of his friends and seeking relief in bankruptcy. On the con-
trary he determined to pay every dollar he owed. He is an able lawyer,
and has enjoyed one of the largest practices that has ever fallen to the lot
of any of our prominent lawyers.
Henry W. Blodgett, the present Judge of the United States District
Court in this district, came to Chicago in 1842, when only twenty-one
years old. Upon his arrival he immediately entered the office of Jonathan
Young Scammon, and began the study of law, afterward continuing his
studies in the office of the late Norman B. Judd. Upon being admitted to
the bar, he entered upon a very successful practice which extended into
many of the adjoining counties, and into Wisconsin. In time he drifted
almost wholly into a railroad practice.
Jonathan Young Scammon has been identified with the Chicago bar
since 1835, an(^ was at one time a partner of B. S. Morris, and at another
of Norman B. Judd. His life has been a very active one, and as a lawyer
he has always had the respect and confidence which ability deserves.
The late Norman B. Judd arrived in Chicago in November, 1836, and
at once entered upon the practice of his profession in company with Judge
Caton, who had been an old friend and schoolmate, and by whose advice
246 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
Mr. Judd came to the new city. He was a diligent and able lawyer, and
died lamented by the bar and a host of friends outside.
Thomas Hoyne was born in the city of New York in 1817, and came to
Chicago in 1837. He had previously studied law to some little extent, but
after arriving here, completed his law reading in the office of J. Y. Scam-
mon, and was admitted to the bar in 1839. In 1842 he removed to Galena,
but after a two years' residence there, returned to Chicago and resumed the
practice of his profession. In 1876 he was elected Mayor of the city, but
owing to some technicality in the law, the courts decided that the term of
the previous Mayor had not expired.
John D. Caton, late Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, was one of
the ablest lawyers of the early days, although in looking over his decis-
ions, after he became judge, it is evident that the full strength of his fine legal
mind fully matured only after years of experience. His later decisions are
much firmer and broader than his earlier ones, and it is due to him to say
that many of the ablest and most important decisions of the Supreme Court
were prepared by him. Possessed of a large fortune, and enjoying an
unusual degree of respect, he has retired from the bench and the profession.
Robert S. Blackwell was another of the lights which have shed a
beautiful luster upon the profession. He was a very astute lawyer, and
being remarkably familiar with cases, would be called a case lawyer.
Almost instantly he was able to cite all the authorities bearing upon a case
in hand. Before a jury, too, he was a very effective speaker.
Buckner S. Morris — one of the Mayors of the city — came from Ken-
tucky, and soon arose to a commanding position in the profession. Not a
profound man, he was a man of a great deal of ability, and before the usual
jury was highly successful. Toward the end of his life, he naturally lost
much of the force which characterized his earlier life, but he kept up his
practice till near the time of his death.
Justin Butterfield and James H. Collins, who were partners, were
both excellent and noted lawyers. The firm was regarded as the ablest in
Chicago, and transacted more first class business in the city, if not in the
State, than any other firm in Chicago. Mr. Collins was a laborious
lawyer. He comprehended a case by investigating it point by point,
deductively. The action of his mind was logical, and he never contracted
the habit which seems to beset some lawyers, of drawing upon his imagi-
nation for his facts, but strictly confined himself to the evidence in the case.
Patrick Benningall will be favorably remembered by some of the older
members of the bar. In the estimation of the profession he was regarded
as one of the ablest criminal lawyers, as a prosecutor, that ever prosecuted
cases in this county. Of Irish birth, he possessed the natural wit and
brilliancy of that race, and in addition had an excellent logical mind.
Daniel McEllroy, also a native of Ireland, was prominent as a prose-
cutor in criminal cases. He was not as logical as Benningall, but was
more imaginative. He may justly be regarded as a lawyer of brilliant,
parts, who was an honor to the bar of which we write.
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 247
John M. Wilson came to Chicago in 1841, and is one of the pro-
foundest lawyers that ever practiced at this bar. He was born in New
Hampshire in 1802. His father, James Wilson, was a man of great
business ability, and having been very successful in mercantile business, was
esteemed the richest man in the State. The mother's name was Mary
McNeil, and she was a sister of General John McNeil, who was in com-
mand of a portion of the American army at Lundy's Lane, where he was
severely wounded. John M. was a classmate in Bowdoin College of
Franklin Pierce. He studied law with Edmund Parker, of Amherst, New
Hampshire, and afterward at the Law School at New Haven, Connecticut.
After being admitted to the bar, he commenced practice in company with
John A. Knowles, at Lowell, Massachusetts, where he remained until 1835,
when he came West, settling at Joliet, Illinois, and practiced there until he
settled in Chicago. Here he entered into partnership with the late Nor-
man B. Judd, practicing mostly as a railroad lawyer, the firm being the
attorneys of the Chicago and Rock Island, the Lake Shore and Michigan
Southern and the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad Companies. In
1853 Mr. Wilson was elected judge of the Cook County Court of Com-
mon Pleas, holding that position until 1859, when the name of the court
was changed to that of the Superior Court of Chicago, Mr. Wilson being
designated in the Act of the legislature changing the name, as the Chief
Justice of the new court, a position which he held until 1868, when he was
succeeded by W. A. Porter. Mr. Wilson is still living, and in his ripe old
age finds nothing but hearty plaudits for his ability as a lawyer, his char-
acter as a judge and a citizen among those who knew him in his prime.
Thus was the foundation of Chicago's brilliant legal profession laid.
The bench has been made from the bar, and has necessarily partaken of its
ability and other characteristics. In no city in the country can be found a
bench which in any desirable particular can surpass our own. Never has
a breath of scandal touched the character of one of our judges, and never
has there been a lack of confidence in the ability and integrity of our
courts. To those who believe that an elective judiciary is almost incom-
patible with integrity and a high order of talent — and it must be admitted
that in some cities the history of the bench has given grounds for such a
belief-— the bench in Chicago must appear in a character of dazzling
splendor, not to sav mystery. The strictest regard for the necessary quali-
fications has usually been observed in the selection of candidates for the
high position, and, perhaps, it may be said, in truth, that the Bar Associa-
tion, which is composed of our most able and reputable lawyers, and which
exercises a sort of surveillance over matters pertaining to the administration
of justice, is largely the cause, in later years, of this care in the selection of
candidates for the bench. Whatever may be the cause, however, the
satisfactory fact is that our judges have been men of learning and unim-
peachable character.
The United States Circuit Court is presided over by Thomas Drum-
mond, who was appointed to the position from the District bench, in
248 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
December, 1869, and assumed the duties in January of the following year.
In the performance of his judicial duties Judge Drummond is patient and
faithful, and his profound knowledge of the law constitutes him one of the
best judges that ever sat upon the bench of any court. His decisions are
always concise and yet expressive. In addition to his other virtues, a more
conscientious man never wore the judicial robes. The United States
District Court is presided over, as already remarked, by Henry W. Blod-
gett, who was appointed to the position on the twelfth of January, 1870.
Richard J. Hamilton occupied the first local judicial position, having
been appointed Probate Judge and Notary Public in 1831. The first term
of court was held by Richard M. Young, in the Autumn of 1833. In
May of the following year, he held another term in the Mansion House,
which stood on the north side of Lake street, a little east of Dearborn.
Judge Young also held the court in the Fall of this year. In the Spring
of 1875, Sidney Breese, afterward a judge of the Supreme Court, and
a United States Senator, held the term, and in the Fall Stephen T.
Logan presided. Thomas Ford was the presiding judge in 1836. In 1837
the charter of the city provided for the establishment of a Municipal Court,
with a jurisdiction limited to the city, and Judge Ford became judge of
the new court, occupying the position until the abolishment of the court
two years later. Theophilus W. Smith, one of the justices of the Supreme
Court, presided at several terms of the Circuit Court between 1836 and
1839, and Stephen A. Douglas held one term in 1839.
About this time, the judges of the Supreme Court having been re-
lieved from the duty of holding the Circuit Courts, John Pearson was
appointed to this Circuit, and held the position until 1844, when Richard
M. Young again became judge. He was succeeded by J. B. Thomas, who
remained upon the bench until 1849, when he resigned, and was succeeded
by Hugh T. Dickey, the present Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
Judge Dickey resigned the position in 1853, and Buckner S. Morris was
elected for the balance of the term, which expired in 1855. At that time
George Manierre was elected for the term of six years, at the expiration
of which he was elected his own successor, dying, however, before his
second term was completed. Judge Manierre was succeeded by Erastus
W. Williams, who served out the unexpired term of the former, and was
re-elected to a second term.
The Cook County Court of Common Pleas was created in 1845, with
about the same jurisdiction that the Circuit Court possessed. Hugh T.
Dickey was appointed the first judge of the new court. He resigned in
1849 and was elected to the Circuit bench. Mark Skine was elected to
serve out Judge Dickey's unexpired term, upon the termination of which
Giles Spring was elected to the position, which he continued to occupy
until 1853, when he died. John M. Wilson was next elected, and held
the office, as already stated, until the court was changed to the Superior
Court, of which Mr. Wilson was the first Chief Justice. This court was
to consist of three judges, and Van H. Higgins and Grant Goodrich were
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 249
elected as associate justices. In 1868, W. A. Porter succeeded Judge
Wilson. Judge Porter died in 1873, and Samuel M. Mrfore was elected
to fill the vacancy. In 1863 Judge Goodrich gave way to Joseph E.Gary,
and Judge Higgins was succeeded in 1865 by John A.Jameson. In the
Spring of 1880 Sidney Smith succeeded Judge Moore.
In 1871 the legislature passed an Act providing for the election of
four additional judges for the Circuit Court of Cook county, and in the
Autumn of that year Henry W. Booth, John G. Rogers, W. W. Farwell
and Lambert Tree were elected under the new law. Judge Tree resign-
ing before the expiration of his term of office, William K. McAllister was
elected to fill out the term, and was re-elected, as was also Judge Rogers,
in 1879, Murray F. Tuley, W. H. Barnum and Thomas A. Moran being
at the same time elected in the place of Judges Booth, Farwell and
Williams.
From this bar and profession thus briefly described, some of the most
brilliant minds have gone forth to shine in even higher spheres, and have
charmed the nation and the world with their brilliancy. It is not necessary
to more than mention the name of Stephen A. Douglas, and even that is
not necessary. Wherever civilization has quickened the intellect to appre-
ciate the divinity of mind, his name is familiar, and the noble shaft which
an admiring people have reared in the city upon which his name and career
shed such matchless luster, is evidence that Chicago is proud of her early
lawyer and judge* Richard M. Young, too, was a senator from Illinois;
and Thomas Ford became governor of the State. To this list many famous
names might be added, but they are quite familiar to the student of men
and passing events.
250
JAMES KIRTLAND EDSALL.
James Kirtland Eclsall was born at Windham, Greene county, New
York, May loth, 1831, and is the son of Joseph Edsall and Nancy Kirtland.
His grandfather, John Edsall, served in the Revolutionary War, and
was with General Washington at the crossing of the Delaware, and be-
longed to a family who settled with the early colonists in New
Jersey.
Joseph Edsall, father of our subject, was possessed of unusual natural
abilities and extensive general information. "He took deep interest in the
cause of education, and spared no pains in giving his children every means
of mental culture.
His mother was born in Connecticut, but removed with her parents,
Richard Kirtland and Lydia Lord Kirtland, to Durham, New York>
whence the family subsequently removed to Windham, the birthplace of
the subject of this sketch. She was a lady of superior education, an
exemplary Christian, and by the purity of her self-sacrificing life, left upon
her children the impress of her noble character.
James received his early education in the common schools, and later
pursued a course of study comprising modern sciences, mathematics,
languages and classics, in the Prattsville Academy, at Prattsville, New
York, paying his expenses by teaching and work upon the home farm.
His father selected him as the lawyer of the family, and at the age of
twelve his brothers and sisters conferred upon him the title of "counselor."
His brother Henry was in like manner set apart for a physician and dubbed
"doctor." The success which has attended each in his life-work shows
the correctness of their father's estimate of their abilities.
James left the Academy in 1851, and began the study of law in the
office of Herman Winans, of Prattsville, and taught during the Winter.
In the Spring of 1852 he took a clerkship in the office of Alexander
H. Bailey, of Catskill, New York, where he could pay his expenses and
at the same time pursue his studies. In the following September he
passed examination for the bar, before the Justices of the Supreme Court
at Albany, New York. In December, 1853, he removed to Milwaukee,
and in the following Summer to Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, thence to St.
Paul, Minnesota, and in the Fall of 1854 settled at Leavenvvorth, Kansas.
There he was made a candidate on the free State ticket to the first Terri-
torial legislature; and though he received a majority of the resident votes,
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 251
armed bodies of men came over from Missouri, and by fraudulent voting
elected the slave State candidate.
In 1855 he was elected to the legislature, which was organized under
what was known as the "Topeka constitution." He participated in the
deliberations of that body and was a member of the committee to draft a
code of laws for Kansas. He was present as a member of the Topeka
legislature on the fourth of July, 1856, when it was broken up by United
States troops under orders from President Pierce.
He was married July 24th, 1856, to Caroline Florella More, at
Florence, Michigan, whence her family had removed from Delhi, New
York. Three children were born to them, viz: James Star, April yth,
1858, Samuel Cook, March 4th, 1860, and Emily Farrington, June 25th,
1862. Samuel is the only survivor of these children, and is now a student
at law. The family are communicants in the Episcopal church.
In August, 1856, the subject of this sketch removed to Dixon, Illinois,
and resumed the practice of his profession. Then twenty-five years of
age, he soon took a leading position at the bar in Northern Illinois, and
built up an extensive practice. His name frequently appears as counsel
in the reports of the Supreme Court, and rarely upon the losing side. In
1863 he was elected mayor of his city, and in 1870 was elected to the
Senate of the Twenty-seventh General Assembly of Illinois, and in this
capacity served two years.
This body contained several of the ablest lawyers of the State, and
among them Mr. Edsall was accorded a position of the first rank. The
adoption of the new constitution of 1870 rendered it necessary to frame
general laws to take the place of the incongruous mass of special legisla-
tion which had previously been in vogue; and by common consent it
seems to have been thought necessary to confide that duty to the most
competent hands. The present complete and excellent general law for
the incorporation of cities and villages was framed in the Senate Com-
mittee on Municipalities, of which Mr. Edsall was chairman, and most of
its provisions bear the impress of his study and thought. The sections
of the conveyance act were drafted by him, which prescribed short forms
of deeds and mortgages, so brief as to contain but few more words than
an ordinary promissory note, aside from names of parties and necessary
descriptions; and yet so complete and comprehensive that the single word
"warrant" is made to express full covenants for title written out in the
mo.st exact legal phraseology. The public and the bar are more indebted
to him than to any one else for the incorporation into the practice act of
1872 those liberal provisions which have rescued the common law system
of pleading and practice in use in this State, from the reproach which it
must be conceded, to some extent rested upon it. His clear head, sound
judgment and extensive legal acquirements were such as to enable him to
distinguish the meritorious and beneficial system of the practice based
upon the common law from those excrescences which had fastened them-
selves upon the system, and constituted an unnecessary obstruction in the
252 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS,
administration of justice. He took a leading part in the discussion of
the important questions which came before the Senate, and prepared the
report of the Judiciary Committee in support of the right of the State to
impose and collect reasonable tolls for the use of improvements of the
navigation of the Illinois river constructed by the State. He made an
argument of great power in support of the constitutionality of govern-
mental control of railroads and warehouses, which was then denied or
doubted by a large portion of the legal profession. At the conclusion
of his speech he predicted that this power would ultimately be sustained
by the Supreme Court of the United States, a prediction which has been
already verified by the decision of that court in Munn vs. Illinois, a cause
argued by him in behalf of the State as Attorney General. At the con-
clusion of the opinion of the court in that case by Chief Justice Waite,
it is said : "In passing upon this case we have not been unmindful of the
vast importance of the questions involved. This and cases of a kindred
character were argued before us more than a year ago by most eminent
counsel, and in a manner worthy of their well-earned reputations."
In 1872 he was elected Attorney General of the State, and was
re-elected to the same office in 1876. The manner in which he has dis-
charged the duties of that office has earned for him the admiration of his
professional brethren and the gratitude of the people. The case of Munn
vs. Illinois, before referred to, had been submitted to the Supreme Court
of the State the year before he was first elected Attorney General, and
upon the authority of members of the court since retired from the bench,
it is said to have been decided against the State when considered in the
conference, but the opinion had not been announced. A re-argument
of the cause was ordered to bring the case before the court as it became
organized after the election of two Judges to fill vacancies caused by
resignation and the expiration of official terms. Availing himself of this
opportunity, Mr. Edsall having become Attorney General, filed an argu-
ment in behalf of the State, which became the basis of the opinion of the
court sustaining the power of the State to pass laws prescribing the max-
imum rates of charges by public warehouse men for the storage of grain.
A petition for re-hearing was filed by the counsel for the warehouse men
upon the ground, as urged by them, that the court had adopted the argu-
ment of the Attorney General, which it was claimed they had not had
an opportunity to answer. The petition was denied, and the cause was
carried to the Supreme Court of the United States, with the result before
indicated.
It is impossible in the space allotted for this sketch to give even a
summary of the important litigation in which he has represented the
interests of the State, as Attorney General, with almost unvarying success.
The eight years during which he held that office has been an epoch in
the legal and constitutional history of the State. The revenue cases
which he has carried successfully through the courts of the State and the
United States, involving taxes to the amount of millions of dollars, speak
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 253
for themselves as to the value of his services, and of the untiring labor
and legal talent displayed in their management.
In all his varied career, as student, lawyer, legislator, senator and
Attorney General, Mr. Edsall has shown himself in every way worthy
of the important trusts imposed upon him. Prompt in all his actions,
decided in his opinions and independent in thought, he has never deviated
from the course which duty has marked out, and has always acted without
regard to popular favor. A lover of freedom and equality, his sympathies
have ever been enlisted in the cause of the oppressed, and he has firmly
maintained the rights of the people. In the discharge of his official duties
he has shown himself possessed of a sound judgment, a thorough knowl-
edge of constitutional law and the principles of government, and that he
was profoundly versed in jurisprudence. During his incumbency of the
office of Attorney General his official opinions have been constantly sought
and acted upon by the Governor and other executive officers of the State,
upon all questions of a legal or constitutional difficulty, and he has invariably
met the demands of the occasion in such manner as to solve the problem
presented and make plain the path of official duty. Gifted with a high
order of talent, patience, perseverance and most estimable social qualities,
few men stand higher in the appreciation of the public than James K.
Edsall.
The reputation he had thus made, and the position he had achieved
before the public was such that it was generally assumed that he would
be a candidate for Governor of the State at the election in 1880. But
mere official positions, not within the line of his profession, appear to have
no attraction for him. He did not even entertain the proposition to become
a candidate for Governor, and more than a year prior to the expiration of
his term gave notice to all aspirants to the office of Attorney General
that he designed to retire to private practice, and would not be a candi-
date for that office. In pursuance of this resolution he removed to the city
of Chicago in September, 1879, and here opened an office for the practice
of the law.
254
LUTHER LAFLIN MILLS.
In glancing over the list of the world's distinguished men, it is
especially noticeable that the achievements which have made the vast major-
ity famous were made in middle age, or even later in life. The young
man thrown into the midst of an ocean of matured intellect — which is
found in anv direction he may seek to make his mark — cannot reasonably
hope to attract to himself an unusual degree of public attention until he,
too, has slowly traversed the rugged path in which his elders have gained
experience and achieved distinction; and should he find himself excepted
from the application of the well recognized general rules governing
success in life, he may attribute his fortune to very superior natural endow-
ments, supplemented by arduous training and exhaustive application to
duty. The world is too full of well directed intellectual energy to permit,
for a moment, the thought that a mind however naturallv brilliant and
powerful, can float into great and permanent prominence, as the boat
lazily drifts down the stream. Life is a desperate conflict, and whoever
gains the victory on any field of the battle, must pay the penalty of sleep-
less vigilance and tireless energy. Especially is this true in the profession
of law, in which are found the most cultured and astute intellects in the
world, and in which there is necessarily, in the general course of business,
a devotion to self-interest that prompts the adoption of any measure
sanctioned by law and honor, to defeat an opponent. In such contests
the young lawyer may well hesitate and tremble when confronted by age
and large experience. It is related of even Daniel Webster, that on one
occasion, when spoken to by a friend in regard to his evident agitation
of mind, he replied: "I am to try a case with Silas Wright, and he is
a giant, sir, he is a giant."
The bar of Chicago has many giants, men of national and even
world wide repute for strength of intellect, legal acquirements and elo-
quence; and it is against discouraging odds that a young man seeks to
rise above the level in the midst of such surroundings. Yet the subject
of this sketch, although a very young man, has achieved substantial suc-
cess and an enviable fame in his exacting profession and under just such
unfavorable conditions. The frequency with which his name is mentioned,
the universal esteem in which he is held, and the full appreciation of his
ability, which is everywhere manifest, would inevitably lead a stranger
to conclude that Mr. Mills was a man of much greater age than he is.
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 255
While being an excellent lawyer in all that that term implies, perhaps
he may be considered strongest when before a jury, where he is a power
that is well nigh resistless. Possessed of an analytical and logical mind,
and capable of the most impassioned eloquence, his presentation of an
argument is both exhaustive and impressive to a degree that borders on the
marvelous. His power over a jury cannot be better illustrated than by
citing the fact, that criminals whose conviction he has secured, in his
capacity as State's Attorney, have been sometimes awarded new trials
partly upon the ground — as stated by the court — that the eloquence of
the prosecutor had an undue influence upon the jury.
Luther Laflin Mills was born in North Adams, Berkshire county,
Massachusetts, September 3d, 1848, and is consequently only thirty-two
years of age. When only two years old, his father removed to Chicago,
and opened the dry goods house which so long bore the name of Mills
& Company. Mr. Mills is, therefore, practically a Chicago boy, having
received his early education in her public schools, and been trained into
manhood amidst the spirit of her enterprise and her rapid strides to her
present glory. In addition to attending the schools of the city, he was
a student at the Michigan University, afterwards thoroughly fitting him-
self for his profession in the office of H. N. Hibbard. Upon being
admitted to the bar, his talents and industry soon commanded unusual
public attention, and in 1876, when only twenty-eight years old, he was
nominated on the Republican ticket for the office of State's Attorney for
Cook county, and was elected by a large majority. During the four years
that followed he won the enviable reputation of being the ablest and
most efficient State's Attorney that the county ever had, securing and unin-
terruptedly holding the confidence of the substantial part of the community.
One of the local papers voiced the sentiment of the people in the state-
ment that "it has sometimes seemed to us that with his great powers,
sturdy honesty and convincing eloquence, he was the only bulwark
against such a flood of criminality as should make Chicago uninhabitable."
In 1880 he was again nominated to the office which for one term he
had administered with such extraordinary success, and the people re-elected
him by a still larger majority than he received four years previous. Mr.
Mills is so particularly fitted by natural endowments for a position of this
kind, that the county feels a sense of safety which few other men in the
office could inspire, and doubtless his life might be spent in this great
service of the public, if he should so desire, and if there were not other
and still more responsible positions which demand just such a high degree
of ability as he possesses. Men of his character, energy and talent must
expect to be called to the discharge of public duties in the very widest
fields of usefulness, and, depending upon life and health, it is only reason-
able to suppose and to confidently predict that Luther Laflin Mills will
achieve in the future successes which will completely shadow even the
brilliant record which he has already made.
On the fifteenth of November, 1876, our subject was married to Ella
256 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
Boies, the accomplished daughter of Joseph M. Boies, of Saugerties,
New York; and three children have blessed this union. In his home and
in his intercourse with friends and the public at large, Mr. Mills is a most
genial gentleman; and to know him is to become attached to him. Neces-
sarily his duties are of a laborious and perplexing nature, and although
his physical strength is taxed to its uttermost, he always extends a pleasant
greeting to all who approach him, and at his own fireside is as if the
burdens of an important public office never rested upon his shoulders.
In politics an ardent Republican, his eloquence and influence have
been invaluable to his party in all the campaigns through which he has
passed since entering political life; and indeed the aggregate of his merits
may be concisely embraced in the statement that in every relation of life
he has fulfilled the most sanguine expectation of his friends, and per-
formed all the duties that the most exacting could have required at his
hands.
W^T VcX^/f
257
:• AREA N. WATERMAN.
Of all the professions or callings in which men engage, the profession
of law is the most arduous and exacting, and comparatively few possess
either the strength of mind or the power of physical endurance to answer
its unrelenting demands. Confronted with opposition skilled in the science
of which he is an exponent, and with courts whose function it is to dispute
any erroneous position which he may assume, or incorrect principle which
he may advance, the lawyer, from the beginning of his professional experi-
ence to its ending, is pre-eminently engaged in a hand to hand conflict, in
which superior knowledge and unusual skill alone can achieve success.
Whether advocate or counselor, these conditions are not changed. What-
ever he does in a professional capacity, must be done with a distinct view
to possible and probable professional review and judicial scrutiny.
To meet such requirements calls into the fullest activity every faculty
of the mind, and keeps it strained to a limit beyond which nature positively
forbids the slightest advance. Success in the profession of law presupposes
an absolute consecration of all that there is of its devotee, and unerringly
indicates that in natural ability he is superior to the average of mankind.
Except that the result of such exhaustive mental and physical labor
as the successful practice of the law extorts, were a reward which is the
most desirable that can be bestowed, failures would be even more common
in the profession than they are now. But from his pathway of professional
success, almost every avenue to usefulness and fame opens to the lawyer,
and it is his option to enter them or not. From his office to the bench,
the halls of science, the retreats of literature, or the active duties and respon-
sibilities of statesmanship, is an easy and legitimate step, and in either, or
any sphere of usefulness his finely trained mind constitutes him a light and
a leader.
While the subject of this sketch, with the exception of indulging
his literary aspirations to some extent, holding a local political office for a
time, and seeing enough of military service to prove him a sterling soldier,
has pursued his profession with a steady devotion that precluded all
thought of the charms of other paths of usefulness which were open to
him, his success as a lawyer and his probable future, make these reflections
eminently proper in the introduction of his biography.
Arba N. Waterman is the son of Loving F. and) Mary Stevens
Waterman, and was born at Greensboro, Orleans county, Vermont,
25& CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
February 5th, 1836. His father was a prosperous and successful mer-
chant, and one of those well informed, energetic and capable business
men, who are a natural product of New England surroundings, and the
son had the advantage of inheriting traits of character which are indis-
pensable to success in life.
The boyhood of Colonel Waterman was spent in Vermont, and his
education obtained at the Academies in Johnson and Montpelier, and at the
Norwich University, in his native State. At the age of eighteen years,
however, he was thrown upon his own resources, and went to Frank-
lin county, Georgia, where he supported himself by teaching in an
academy. When nineteen he came to Illinois, teaching in the Winter
of 1855-6 at Gooding's Grove, in Will county, and thereafter studied
law at Joliet with G. A. D. Parker. In 1857 ^e went to Kansas with
the intention of making that State his future home, but being recalled
from there in the Summer of 1857 by the death of his father, he returned
to Vermont where, for more than a year, he devoted himself to settling
his father's estate, and reading law with Stoddard B. Colby of Montpelier.
After going through the course at the Law School at Albany, New
York, he returned to Joliet and commenced the practice of law. Soon
after coming to Illinois he became imbued with anti-slavery convictions
of the most pronounced type, and entered with all the enthusiasm and
ardor of youth, and of one who felt the iniquity and disgrace of a system
by which men were denied the fruit of their toil, into the advocacy of
universal freedom in the United States.
At the time of the first battle of Bull Run he was in Washington,
where the want of system, order and foresight, with the confusion and
disorder in the conduct of affairs, filled him not merely with indignation,
but with deeper convictions of the terrible conflict through which the
nation had to pass before the iniquity of so many generations could
be wiped out. Returning to Illinois he at once made arrangements for
entering the army, but being prostrated by a severe illness he was obliged
to forego his purpose. In 1862 the reverses of our army on the peninsula
seemed to him a summons to every man who could bear arms, and he
at once enlisted and commenced to recruit soldiers in the county of Will,
where he had become well known. The company he recruited grew to
a regiment, and he was unanimously chosen its lieutenant colonel and
went to the front. In the Winter of 1862-3 being at Louisville, Ken-
tucky, he was placed in command of a hastily improvised force of some
two thousand men and sent into the field to intercept Morgan, then rapidly
advancing upon Louisville. Relieved of this duty he was placed in charge
of a steamboat containing one hundred tons of ammunition and ordered to
take the same to Nashville, which he did. Rejoining his regiment at
Murfreesborough, Tennessee, he participated with it in the battle of
Chicamauga, where, after having his horse killed under him, he was him-
self shot through the right arm and in the side. He participated in other
battles about that time, always displaying a commendable courage. While
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
259
with his regiment in the Atlanta campaign, severe illness compelled his
resignation from the service, and he returned to the State whose soldiers
he had led in the battle, and to whose fair name he had added additional
luster.
Coming to Chicago in 1865, he at once began the practice of law, and
the success that he has achieved is witnessed by the character of the litiga-
tion in which he is employed, and by his standing in the profession. He
has had the management of some of the most important and intricate
cases ever tried in any of the courts in the country, and during the nineteen
years of his practice he has never, it is said, lost a case of large magnitude.
The immediate cause of his success in the conduct and trial of causes is the
conscientious care which he bestows upon their preparation. The late
Ira Harris, of New York, was accustomed to say to his students:
"When you enter a court room for the trial of a cause, be able to say
that you know more about the case, both as to facts and law, than any
one else on earth." This principle Colonel Waterman has adopted,
and it has often led him to achieve victory which, although legitimate, was
so obscured by the complication of facts and the intricacy of legal princi-
ples, that its achievement seemed improbable to all except the studious
mind which had penetrated the cloud.
In politics Colonel Waterman is an ardent republican, but as already
stated, has thus far in life been so wedded to his profession that he has
given little attention to such matters, except to do what he might, outside of
his own political promotion, to advance the interests of his party. From 1875
to 1877 he was a member of the City Council, discharging his duties faith-
fully and to the satisfaction of his constituency. This is the only political
office he ever held, although his name has been somewhat prominently
mentioned in connection with Congress and the bench.
The literary taste and culture of Colonel Waterman are among his
most conspicuous characteristics, and have made him an important
element in the ripening refinement of the community. Prominently con-
nected with the Chicago Philosophical Society — whose name indicates its
character — and with the Irving Club, a literary society of high excellence
and commanding influence, he not only has an opportunity to gratify his love
of literature, but is possessed of fine facilities for promoting literary culture.
While he would not claim it himself, it is nevertheless a recognized fact,
that to him both the Philosophical Society and the Irving Club owe much
of their prosperity and influence.
In his private and domestic life Colonel Waterman is a kind, genial
and exemplary gentleman. Married at Chicago, December i6th, 1862,
to Ella Hall, a most estimable and accomplished lady, his home is one
of refinement and happiness, precisely what we should picture as the
home of a man of culture and progress. Still young, ambitious to excel
in all that is ennobling to character, surrounded by the most encouraging
conditions, and with a successful past for a foundation, life and health are
the only requisites to insure Colonel Waterman a brilliant and useful future.
260
CONSIDER H. WILLETT.
"Enough of idle words:
Let hands, not tongues, show what we are." — OVID.
The ancestral biography is classical in brevity ; "the short and simple annals of
the poor."
Consider Heath Willett was born in Onondaga, New York, Decem-
ber I2th, 1840, being the only son of William Jr. and Tryphosa Jackson
Willett. The father was born, lived and died on the clearing made by
his father — a farm nestling among the beautiful hills and lakes of Central
New York. The trees, fruits, vegetable productions, soils, geological
formations, animals, wild and domestic, and occupations surrounding our
subject's birth were so varied as to embrace nearly all found in the North.
These early awakened his attention, made him an accurate student of
mankind from an intimate knowledge of individuals, and taught him
natural science from nature's book.
He inherited the parental characteristics, the leading traits of his
father's character being integrity, moral courage and an unswerving
devotion to conviction. His mother was a genius of industry, crowning
what her hands wrought with beauty and utility.
Fate, with stern decree, shaped the rule of his young life. The
death of his father — who was all that seemed perfect to his child-mind^
brought the blight of a great sorrow, and early matured his manhoocL
Fatherless at eleven, two years later, through a misunderstanding with
his step-father, he found himself afloat upon the sea of life. From this
time on he always supported himself, though his mother, at a sacrifice,
aided him in obtaining a higher education. His hands were taught how
to use tools, and he excelled in various kinds of manual labor, which
he sought for the purpose of earning means to accomplish self-education.
He worked for several farmers, in a sawmill, as a house painter, in a
country store and in a postofHce. In these varied industries he became
an apt pupil in the people's college of toil. These early hardships have
always placed him in close sympathy with the laboring classes.
Always a student, always a lover of books, he applied himself to
study with that devotion to duty which has distinguished his whole life.
We find him at Onondaga and Cortlandville academies; also taking
a special course in higher mathematics, as a private pupil of Professor
H. N. Robinson, at Elbridge, New York; and graduating at the New
York State Normal School, at Albany, in 1862. Upon graduating from
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 261
this institution, he immediately volunteered as a private — when Antietam
beckoned to the bloody field — in Company E, organized from the graduates
of his school, and attached to the Forty-fourth New York Infantry, Army
of the Potomac. He became orderly sergeant by vote of his comrades.
Being twice "jumped" for promotion because of political Democratic
intrigues, he at length obtained a furlough for the purpose of going before
the Military Board at Washington, District of Columbia, of which
Major-General Silas Casey was president, to be examined for promotion
in the colored troops. As the result of the severe examination for which
this board became famous, Sergeant Willett was in August, 1863, com-
missioned Captain of Company G, Second United States Colored Infantry,
ranking with regular army officers. He held this rank until after the
war, when having the yellow fever at Fort Taylor, Key West, Florida,
ill-health caused him to resign his commission in September, 1865.
Our soldier was in every engagement of the Army of the Potomac
while in that army, including the memorable battles of Fredericksburg,
Chancellorville and Gettysburg. As one incident of his experience, on
the second day of July, 1863, at Gettysburg, he in charge of a volunteer
skirmishing squad*of four men, in the woods between and in front of Little
and Big Round Top, captured ninety-six prisoners of war. He took
with his own hands three swords and one revolver from the Fifth Texas
Confederate Infantry. -These ninety-six prisoners were captured at a time
when the official records show only two hundred and ninety-one prisoners
of war were captured by the entire army. This was a brave achieve-
ment, in which fear stood still and courage was the master spirit. At
night, amid the groans of the wounded and dying, in command of the
detail to bury the dead, more than forty tried friends were buried in one
common grave. Rebel musketry fired their salute, and the stars of heaven
lighted them to their eternal home.
The department of the Gulf and the west coast of Florida became
the field ;of his operations. He commanded several posts established to
assist the navy and to help the refugees and Crackers to escape from the
rebel lines. He captured three blockade runners, and was in several
small engagements. In one, at St. Mark's Lighthouse, he captured
a twelve pound brass cannon. During all his Florida service the rebel
army boasted of having orders to take no colored soldiers or white officers
who commanded in a colored regiment alive as prisoners of war, but to
kill them at sight, without quarter.
While in the army, our hero divided his time equally between his
military duties, the study of every published work on military science
and reading Blacks tone and Kent. Leaving the army, he attended for
a term medical lectures at the Bellevue Medical Hospital College, in
New York city. He then entered the Albany Law School, and was
admitted to the bar at Albany, in April, 1866. Still further pursuing his
law studies, he graduated at the Alichigan University Law School, in
1867. Having practiced law in Syracuse, New York, for a time, he
262 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
located in Chicago in June, 1867. His merits as a man and a lawyer soon
attracted attention, and his success was early assured. While on the
threshold of success, misfortune's wave swept over him, as it did
thousands of others, in the fire of October Sth, 1871. His papers, library
and business became a smouldering ruin. But amidst the general desola-
tion, while the hot smoke was yet rolling over our stricken city, he was
among the first to rally in business. October eleventh found him coun-
seling with his clients at Dr. F. M. Wilder's office on Twenty-second
street. All he had left was an abiding and unbounded faith in the
rebuilding and future prosperity of Chicago. Then came the struggle
for clear life. Unprepared for the emergency, a brief in type of an important
case in the Supreme Court* having been burned, he obtained a pass to
Ottawa, and was the first lawyer from Chicago to tell the Court of the
fearful dangers past, and for want of money slept in a chair in the office
of the Clifton House. He won his case, and soon obtained a footing out
of the "Slough of Despond."
In April, 1875, Mr. Willett was appointed Village Attorney of Hyde
Park, Cook county, Illinois, and re-appointed in 1876 and also in 1877.
He published the ordinances of Hyde Park, an original work of four
hundred pages. In January, 1879, he was appointed to the responsible
position of County Attorney for Cook county, and he has been twice
re-appointed — in 1880 and 1881 — which place he now holds. He has
discharged the arduous and often perplexing duties of this position with
great success, and has earned the gratitude of the people by his efficiency
and fidelity in the defense of their rights. In an official capacity he has
always met the expectations of the most exacting, and discharged the
most delicate and difficult duties with such signal ability and tact, as not
only to best conserve the public interests, but to satisfy even the captious.
Always deliberate in reaching conclusions, the pressure which so often is
exerted to influence the judgment of public officers, never disturbs the
logical reasonings through which he arrives at results, and never moves
him from a rigid exactness in the administration of any public trust which
has been placed in his keeping. It is seldom that a man so exactly fitted
for the excitements surrounding public position, and of such an even
temperament under all the varying circumstances of official life, is met
with; and it is not surprising that Mr. Willett should have attracted
to himself the attention of many of those who have seen in his public
and private life the elements of extreme usefulness on the bench. f
*White vs. Herman 51 Illinois, 243.
fThe quietness and usefulness of his official sagacity are well illustrated in the case
of People ex rel. Shaack vs. Brayton, 94 Illinois, 341. The statutes provided a way to
consolidate the towns of South, West and North Chicago, and the public and press
demanded it. Under a statute the county authorities at the request of the city authori-
ties, created the new town of Chicago. The legality of these proceedings was doubted,
but the question was how to make a case till after the election of officers for the new
town. After such election, if illegal, all assessments and taxes in two of the old towns
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 263
Mr. Willett's legal business has been varied, embracing the entire
circuit of criminal and civil jurisprudence. He now confines himself to
civil practice, paying particular attention to constitutional, corporation,
equity and real estate questions. He stands in the front rank of his pro-
fession, being a skillful and fearless leader. He is prominent in political,
social and fraternal organizations. Frank and outspoken to bluntness, he
is an exposer of fraud and duplicity in every form. "Modest, firm, simple
and self poised, his fame shall be earned not alone by things written and
said, but by the arduous greatness of things done." Like the tree just com-
mencing to bear fruit, the years of his future shall be rich in his nobler
and greater achievements.
would be absolutely void, because the assessor of the new town would be merely a
de facto officer in the old town where he resided. All the legal talent of Chicago
failed to find any way of averting the catastrophe; yet, like all great undertakings,
a way as simple as the discovery of America by Columbus was found by County
Attorney Willett. Its simplicity, however, cannot detract from the ingenuity which
conceived such practical results. He had Frank Shaack, a citizen of West Chicago,
go before a Justice of the Peace, H. B. Brayton, in South Chicago, to acknowledge
a chattel mortgage, and the justice refused to take the acknowledgment on the ground
that the towns had not been consolidated and the instrument must be acknowledged
in the town where the mortgagor resided. A petition for a mandamus was then filed
in the Supreme Court, to compel the justice to acknowledge the chattel mortgage and
the court deciding the case promptly before the election, held the towns were not con-
solidated. The assessment at this time, 1880, was for South Chicago, $41,678,440;
West Chicago, $34.883,888, and North Chicago, $12,494,009; and the taxes were, South
Chicago, $2,063,326; West Chicago, $1,729,663, and North Chicago, $675,728. And
these figures alone represent the importance of this case.
264
WILLIAM C. GRANT.
"William C. Grant, one of the representative prominent members
of the Cook county bar, was born in Lyme, New Hampshire, October
8th, 1829, and is the son of Peter Grant and Dolly Ware. His pater-
nal grandfather's name was John Grant, a descendant of Matthew Grant,
who was originally settled at Dorchester, Massachusetts, but afterward
moved to Windsor, Connecticut, and later to Lyme, in the same State.
From here, he and others, went to New Hampshire, settling where the
town of Lyme is now located naming the place after their old home
in Connecticut. Peter Grant, the father of our subject, was born in the
town which his father thus helped to settle and designate. Dolly Ware
was the daughter of Joseph Ware, and was born and reared at Thetford,
Vermont, the location of the early and somewhat famous academy, called
Thetford Hill Academy, and which was situated on the east side of the
Connecticut river, opposite Lyme.
Peter Grant, with his family, consisting of his wife, William C., and
a daughter, now the wife of Philip L. Moen, of Worcester, Massachu-
setts, removed, when our subject was about two years of age, from Lyme
to Troy, Vermont, where the father died in about four years. Six years
later the widow married Raymond Hale, and soon after removed with
her husband and children to Chelsea, Vermont, where William worked
on the farm in Summer and attended the village school in Winter, and
the high school in the Spring and Autumn. When only sixteen years
old, however, he began teaching a district school, and subsequently earned
sufficient money to support himself at Thetford Hill Academy, in prepara-
tion for college. At this time, and for many years afterward, Hiram
Orcutt was the principal of this institution, and maintained a flourishing
school of over two hundred scholars.
In 1847, having made suitable preparation, William entered Dart-
mouth College, at Hanover, New Hampshire, maintaining himself, almost
unaided, by teaching, and graduating with the class of 1851, with an
election to the Phi Beta Kappa Society, or among the first third of the class.
Immediately upon graduating he was offered and accepted the principal-
ship of Andover Academy, Andover, New Hampshire, which position
he successfully filled until the close of the Spring term of 1852, when he
was elected the first principal of the Howe School, an institution founded
and endowed by the late Dr. Zadock Howe, at Billerica, near Lowell,
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 265
Massachusetts. He remained in charge of this institution as principal
until the close of the Summer term of 1855, when he resigned to devote
himself solely to the study of the law, to which he had already given
much attention all through his career as a teacher. Entering the office
of the late Judge William B. Hebard, of Chelsea, Vermont, he applied
himself diligently to the work in hand, and at the expiration of one year
was admitted to the Vermont bar. Thoroughness in whatever he under-
took, however, being an early distinguishing feature of his character, he
entered the Dane Law School in September, 1856, where he remained
for two terms, and in the Spring of 1857 removed to Chicago, to engage
in the practice of his profession. Upon his arrival in Chicago he was
introduced to the firm of Williams & Woodbridge, whose office he
entered for the purpose of familiarizing himself with the local law and
practice. This purpose having been accomplished, he opened an office
and commenced practice for himself about the first of June, 1857, con-
tinuing alone about two months, when Messrs. Williams & Woodbridge
proposed a partnership, and the firm became Williams, Woodbridge &
Grant, composed of Erastus S. Williams, John Woodbridge and W. C.
Grant. This business arrangement continued without change until June,
1863, when Mr. Williams was elected Judge of the Circuit Court of
Cook county, and the firm became Woodbridge & Grant, so continuing
until May, 1867, when Mr. Woodbridge having been appointed Master
in Chancery of Cook county, the firm of Woodbridge & Grant was dis-
solved, and Mr. Grant continued in the practice alone until May ist, 1871,
when, having become overburdened with business, particularly as attorney
for the State Savings Institution, the Mutual Life Insurance Company
of Chicago and other corporations, he associated with himself his present
partner, William H. Swift, the firm becoming Grant & Swift, under
which name the successful business previously established continued until
May, 1880, when this firm associated with them Matthew P. Brady, as
a junior partner, and the firm name became Grant, Swift & Brady, and
still continues the same. Their business thus built up is largely real
estate, and chancery combined with corporate and general commercial
business. The firm stands very high both in professional circles and with
"the public at large.
Mr. Grant was married at Chicago, in 1861, to Jennie A. McCallum,
daughter of the late Mrs. R. M. Seymour, formerly of Binghamton,
New York, but for many years before her death a resident of Chicago.
Mr. and Mrs. Grant have two children, both sons, aged respectively
sixteen and eighteen years, and members of the Harvard School, where
they are preparing for college.
Personally Mr. Grant is a most amiable gentleman, and his mildness
of manner in social intercourse, almost totally obscures the determined will
and unflagging perseverance which this brief sketch of his life so
plainly indicates, and which are the distinguishing traits of his character.
Generous, charitable and companionable, he is yet a man of deep convic-
266 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
tions and of fearless execution in the path of conceived duty. Naturally
possessed of a taste for knowledge and the beautiful, his successful and
lucrative practice has enabled him to surround himself with means for
its gratification and development, and his mind has become that well
filled repository of general information and refined thought which attracts
to him the intellectual and the pure. In the great conflagration of 1871,
he not only suffered the loss of a large law library and household furni-
ture, but the paintings and valuable miscellaneous library which his
judicious taste had for years been selecting. Nothing daunted, however,
his courageous nature prompted to: the immediate work of repair, and
he soon began to replace and add to the destroyed treasures. His inclina-
tions are wholly in the line of his profession and in the gratification
of his intellectual and artistic tastes. He has always refused, therefore,
to entertain the idea of holding public office. A staunch and lifelong Re-
publican, he has frequently been solicited by those of that political faith for
permission to use his name in connection with official position, especially
for the office of judge of one of the courts, but his aversion to holding
public office, and to the usual methods of gaining them, could not be
overcome. He is entirely too frank and upright to make even an indiffer-
ent politician. In those walks of life in which intelligence, integrity,
honor and manliness are regarded for what they are worth, Mr. Grant is
fitted to excel, and by the practice of these virtues he has achieved an
honorable and influential position in the community and is esteemed by
all who know him, either personally or by reputation.
367
ROBERT S. WILSON.
Among the old settlers, those who bore the brunt of the early battles
of our city against the siege of adversity which besets the infancy of
a community, Robert S. Wilson holds a conspicuous position and enjoys
an enviable fame. His advent in Chicago was at a time when there was
much to do in laying a foundation for the present and future greatness
and glory of the metropolis, and when it required the best ability, the
grandest of character and the staunchest of personal energy to accomplish
the necessities of the hour. To those who come after pioneers and pluck
the fruits which ripen upon the trees they planted, it is difficult to fully
conceive of their labor and devotion when barrenness, complete or com-
parative, frowned where now beauty adorns. The work of development
under such circumstances, partakes so largely of the nature of sacrifices
for posterity, that it distinguishes the faithful citizen as a patriot and
honest friend of his race, and although he may live, as the subject of this
sketch has, to behold an astonishing, if not miraculous, maturity of the
harvest from the sowing in which he participated, it is exceptional in
the history of the world. The wildest imagination, thirty years ago,
could not have pictured the existence in 1881 of this beautiful city of the
West. Far hence, locked in the bosom of the yet unborn years, the glory
and power that now make the spot on which the Indian camped but
a half century since, famous as the most enterprising and prosperous
community in our vast West, and one of the grandest in the world, may
have faintly appeared to the far-seeing minds which devised the firm
foundations of the elegant structure, but so early a realization of their
hopes and expectations, as time has furnished, could not have been antici-
pated. Steadily, however, they pressed forward with the important and
arduous labor of pioneer life. They marked out thoroughfares for others
to adorn and crowd; they planted trees that posterity might rest in their
shade; they cultivated flowers for coming generations to admire; they
chased the wolf and coaxed the Indian from what was to be the home
of a million people in the highest state of civilization; they formulated
laws, established government and administered justice, turning rudeness
into beauty, chaos into order, and supplanting immorality and vice with
virtue and decency. Many of them dropped out of line, and were
tenderly laid away forever, in the very midst of these early conflicts;
others lived to see the distinct, and increasing brilliancy of the rapidly
268 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
developing civilization, and still others have survived to enjoy the full
flush of the noonday, Judge Wilson being of the small number.
Robert S. Wilson was born at Montrose, in Susquehanna county,
Pennsylvania, November 6th, 1812. His parents, Stephen and Annie
Wilson, were the first settlers of Montrose, whither they went in 1799.
At that time there was no house within six miles of Montrose, which
afterward became and still is the county seat. The father of our subject
was a farmer, but took an active part in public affairs, being prominent
in the organization of Susquehanna county. After residing here for a num-
ber of years, the family removed to Bradford county in the same State,,
and afterward to Allegany county, in the State of New York. Mr. and
Mrs. Wilson were people of very superior character, and during a long
life enjoyed such confidence of neighbors and friends as spotless integrity,
industry and uprightness alone can win. The father died at the age of
seventy- six and the mother at the age of ninety, universally respected and
deeply loved by a family of children to whom they had been most tenderly
devoted, and a bright example of the purest life. Until fifteen years old,
Robert spent his time on his father's farm, and in attendance upon the
district schools. At this age, however, he entered the printing office
of his brother, Samuel C., who was publishing the ANGELICA REPORTER,
Angelica, Allegany county, New York. Here he remained for three
years, learning the printing business, and enjoying the facilities for acquir-
ing an education, which a printing office so abundantly furnishes. Leaving
the printer's case, he began the study of law in the office of George Miles,
then District Attorney for Allegany county, and when twenty-one years
old was admitted to the bar, entering immediatelv upon and continuing
the practice of his profession in Allegany county until March, 1836,
when he removed to Ann Arbor, Michigan. Here he was very soon
elected a Justice of the Peace, and in the Fall of 1836 was elected Probate
Judge of the county. He was also a member of the State Senate of
Michigan in 1843-4, anc^ was a delegate to the convention that nominated
James K. Polk for the Presidency of the United States. In 1850 he
removed from Ann Arbor to Chicago, where he immediately entered
upon the practice of his profession, and continued in active practice until
March, 1853, when he was elected Judge of the Recorder's Court of the
city, a court having both civil and criminal jurisdiction. In March, 1858,
he was re-elected to this position, and served on this bench in all ten
years. As a judge, Mr. Wilson was eminently successful, and 'while
carefully guarding the rights of the innocent — one of the most sacred
duties which devolve upon a court — he was severe in his punishment of
crime, which at the time Judge Wilson took his seat upon the bench was
alarmingly prevalent in the city. Naturally possessed of the kindest
of hearts, and feeling deeply for the fortunes of those whom the law had
entrapped, he never lost sight of his duty to the public or failed to embrace
his opportunity to aid in laying a foundation of peace, good order and
morality upon which Chicago might be constructed. In the faithful
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 269
and impartial administration of justice, he sent about one thousand crim-
inals to the penitentiary during his term of office, and set an example
which it is hoped the judiciary of this city and county will ever follow.
His ability as a judicial officer may be inferred from the fact that in all
the ten years of service upon the bench, only thi'ee of his decisions were
reversed by the Supreme Court. At the close of his second term, a request
that he should be a candidate for re-election was numerously signed by
prominent citizens, but preferring to engage in private pursuits, he
respectfully declined.
Judge Wilson is married, and has three children, two sons and
a daughter, the latter living in Chicago and being the widow of the late
Postmaster Gilmore, herself the mother of five children. Mrs. Gilmore
is a woman of rare intelligence and virtues, and is widely known for her
kindness of heart, charities and retiring disposition.
Judge Wilson was the youngest of nine children, seven of whom are
still living. His brother, Mason S. Wilson, is living tit the age of eighty-
three, at Montrose, in Pennsylvania, and is now the oldest living settler
of that place. Another brother, Samuel C. Wilson, lives in Allegany
county, New York, of which county he was the Surrogate for many
years, and also the first judge. Still another brother, Stephen Wilson,
lives on the old homestead at Belfast, on the Genesee river, in the same
county. The whole family enjoys a spotless reputation for real worth
of character, and Judge Wilson, in a long, useful and successful life has
buiTt for himself a monument of personal integrity and uprightness of
character which will stand as long as the city in which he has lived for
a third of a century, and whose welfare he has guarded with a jealous
care. Firm in his devotion to friends — of whom he demands a like
sincerity — high minded, and too independent to be an unquestioning fol-
lower of the partisan dictates of even the political party with which he
is identified and from which he has received political honors, he has
proven himself that sincere, honorable and straightforward citizen whom
the masses love to honor.
270
SAMUEL M. MOORE.
i
Samuel McClelland Moore is a native of Kentucky, having been
born in Bourbon county, in that State, August 2^dt 1821. His father,
James Moore, was a farmer, a native of Rockbridge county, Virginia,
and his mother, whose name before marriage was Margaret McClure, was
a native of Carlisle, Pennsylvania. There were five children, beside
two that died in infancy, Samuel being the youngest of four brothers,
all of whom except himself, became farmers, and his earlier years
were spent on the home farm. One of his brothers, James M. Moore, died
in Kentucky, over fifteen years ago, and another, John P. Moore,
died at his residence near Indianapolis, Indiana, in August, 1875, aged
sixty-five years. William A. Moore, the Judge's only surviving brother,
is an extensive farmer in Woodtbrd county,' Kentucky, and his widowed
sister, Mrs. Hall, resides on a farm in Nelson county, in that State. The
father died when Samuel was an infant, and the latter remained on
the old homestead, working on the farm and attending school, until he
was sixteen years of age, when he entered Miami University, at Oxford,
Ohio, when Dr. R. H. Bishop, who at that time was acknowledged to
be the leading educator in the West, was its President. He took the
regular four years classical course of study in that institution, graduating
in 1841, when he was twenty years of age. Governor Hardin, of Mis-
souri, Reverend Ben Mills, of this State, Reverend J. M. Bishop and
Dr. G. L. Andrew, of Indiana, Judge A. Paddock, and Honorable
Samuel Shellabarger, of Ohio, were among his classmates in the Uni-
versity.
He entered the law office of Judge James R. Curry, at Cynthiana,
Harrison county, Kentucky, and after several months of diligent study,
was admitted to the bar before he was quite twenty-one, receiving his
professional license from the hands of Judges Mason Brown and Henry
O. Brown, the former of whom was the father of Honorable B. Gratz
Brown, of Missouri. Shortly after being admitted to the bar he married
Martha Wilson, a daughter of Reverend Robert Wilson, one of the
earliest Presbyterian clergymen in Kentucky. After practicing his profes-
sion for over two years at Cynthiana, he removed to the city of Covington,
Kentucky, where he opened a law office, and subsequently, to use his
own expression, "1 was weak enough to turn aside from my professional
practice to engage in the unprofitable business of publishing and editino-
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 271
a weekly newspaper" — the KENTUCKY INTELLIGENCER, a Democratic
journal, which he conducted for two years, and then returned to the law»
first forming a co-partnership with Herman J. Groesbeck, and afterward,
on the death of the latter, with J. E. Spillman, who afterward abandoned
the legal profession for the pulpit.
While in partnership with Mr. Spillman, Judge Moore was elected
to the Kentucky legislature, serving one term. Among those who
occupied seats in that body at that time were some of the ablest men of
the State, such men, for example, as J. L. Trimble, J. F. Bullett, Ben
Hardin, Tom F. Marshall and Judges Robertson, Boyd and George R.
McKee. He was a member of the House Judiciary Committee, and was
the first to introduce and advocate two important measures, which,
although they failed of passage then, became laws only a few years later,
namely a bill to fix ten per cent, as the conventional rate of interest, and
the Homestead Exemption bill.
Subsequently he formed a law partnership, at Covington, with Judge
French, one of the most distinguished lawyers and jurists in Kentucky.
In those times, he took an active part in current political movements,
and especially during that exciting period, in 1854-5, when "Know
Nothingism," so called, threatened to sweep the whole country, its object
being virtually to disfranchise citizens of foreign birth. He was one of
the first politicians of Kentucky to take a bold position against this
crusade, which he did at a great public meeting at Covington, in the very
incipiency of the movement, taking the ground that, to invite foreigners
to equal citizenship with ourselves, and then, after they have accepted
the invitation in good faith, deny them the rights of citizenship, would
be not only dishonorable, but revolutionary and contrary to the spirit of
our government, and that, furthermore, all secret political organizations
are hostile to the very principles of our republican form of government.
Soon after the death of his law partner, Judge French, he was
nominated for the office of Judge of the Circuit, embracing the five
counties which have their political centers at Covington and Newport.
Just previous to this nomination, which was during the Presidential
campaign in 1856, he had been designated by the Democratic Convention
as Assistant Elector for Kentucky, which he at once declined, deeming
the office of Judge too sacred in its duties and responsibilities to be
dragged into the rough scramble of the political arena. When selected
as an Assistant Elector, it was the expectation of his friends, and his own
intention, to "stump" the State for the party and the candidates of his
choice, but when he was announced as a candidate for the bench, and
that too, without regard to party politics, he felt that the "eternal fitness
of things" demanded that he should retire from active participation in
the public canvass, and accordingly did so. He was elected to the Judge-
ship, and served a full term of six years, at the end of which, declining
a re-nomination, he determined to remove to Chicago.
Accordingly settling up his affairs in Kentucky, he finally transferred
272 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
his residence to this city, in 1865, becoming a law partner of B. G. Caul-
field, late member of Congress from the First District of Illinois. After
practicing his profession successfully, until 1873, he was elected to the
bench of the Superior Court for the term of six years. Shortly before
his election, Judge Porter of that court died, leaving an unexpired term
of some weeks. Governor Beveridge appointed Judge Moore to fill out
the term.
Judge Moore's family consists of his wife and five surviving chil-
dren. His oldest son — Robert W. Moore — who had been admitted to
the bar and was a very promising young man, died over eight years ago.
His oldest daughter is the wife of Reverend R. A. Condit, a Presbyterian
clergyman now of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The Judge is himself a very de-
voted Presbyterian, and it is not too much to say that he is a truly exemplary
Christian gentleman. He has been an elder in the Presbyterian church
for over twenty-five years, and now holds that office in the Third Presby-
terian Church of this city. As has been already stated, his wife is the
daughter of a Presbyterian clergyman, and is in full and cordial sym-
pathy with her husband's religious convictions and worship.
As a Judge on the bench, it can be said with entire truth, that Judge
Moore was "the right man in the right place." He is eminently a fair
man, and no one at all acquainted with his judicial career either in Ken-
tucky or in Chicago, will for an instant doubt his earnest purpose, in all
cases of ruling or deciding justly. Judge Moore is now in retirement.
273
THOMAS DRUMMOND.
Among the oldest and most respected members of the judiciary in
the State of Illinois, is Honorable Thomas Drummond. His name for
the past twenty-five years has been prominent in our State. His history
begins with the early years of the present century, as he was born on the
sixteenth of October, 1809. The place of his nativity is Bristol Mills,
Lincoln county, Maine, where his grandfather, a native of Scotland, had
settled some time prior to the Revolutionary War. His father, Honorable
James Drummond, had been both a farmer and a seafaring man. He
was for some years a member of the State legislature. His death
occurred in 1837. Mrs. Drummond was a daughter of Henry Little,
of New Castle, Maine, a descendant of the early settlers of New England.
She died while Thomas was very young.
The township of Bristol, in which the family resided, is a peninsula,
terminating in a headland — Pemaquid Point. It was visited by the early
navigators, and a temporary settlement was made there in the beginning
of the seventeenth century. Living on the sea coast, and in the midst
of marine associations, it is not strange that with these surroundings, the
lad should wish to become a sailor, as his father had been, but the latter
firmly opposed this wish, and Thomas yielded obedience to parental
authority, although he never lost his affection for the sonorous music of
the waves, and the ever-changing beauties that render the ocean so at-
tractive. His love for the sea evinced itself in after life by the peculiar
interest which he took in marine law. He so thoroughly mastered all
legal points involved in that branch of the profession that a decision in
admiralty given by him is looked upon as incontrovertible, and is seldom
appealed from or reversed.
His early education was received at the village schoolhouse near his
home. He afterward attended various academies in the State — at New
Castle, Monmouth, Fanningham and Gorham — and at seventeen years
of age, entered Bowdoin College, at Brunswick, Maine, from which he
graduated after the usual course, being then twenty-one years old.
He immediately went to Philadelphia, and began the study of law
in the office of William T. Dwight, a son of President Dwight, of Yale
College. This gentleman left the bar the following year, to enter the
ministry, and Mr. Drummond continued his studies with Thomas Brad-
ford, Jr., until March, 1833, when he was admitted to practice at the bar.
274 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
He continued in his profession at that place about two years. In May,
1835, attracted by the opportunities offered by the far West, he came
to Illinois, and established a law office at Galena, where he remained
fifteen years. His ability soon displayed itself, and early in his career
he was acknowledged to be a lawyer of rare attainments, unflagging
industry, and possessed of a perseverance that admitted ot no failure.
From his accurate knowledge of the law, and his thorough and conscien-
tious manner of sustaining his clients' interests, many important cases
were placed in his hands, nearly all of which were successfully con-
ducted.
Upon the death of Judge Pope, in February, 1850, Mr. Drummond
was appointed by General Taylor to succeed him as Judge of the United
States District Court for the District of Illinois. In December, 1856, he
was appointed to the bench .of the Circuit Court, which position he has
held to the present time.
The position of United States Judge is one of the highest that can
be attained by an American citizen, and he who worthily <ills the office
is entitled to more than an ordinary degree of .respect. The emoluments
are not great, but the place is one of high honor and immense responsi-
bility. Judge Drummond has filled the office with the greatest acceptability
for a long term of years, and has thereby won the unqualified respect
and admiration of the people throughout this and the neighboring States,
In the days of the Whig party, Judge Drummond was an advocate
of its measures, although never mingling extensively in politics, and only
once accepted a political office. Upon the rise of the Republican party,
he transferred his connection to that. He was a member of the House
of Representatives during the term of 1840-1, but has since then per-
sistently withheld from any participation in political life.
In the performance of his judicial duties, Judge Drummond is patient,
wise and faithful. From his accurate and profound knowledge of the
law, his opinions necessarily carry much weight. His decisions, while
very concise, are admirably framed, and convey precisely the meaning
intended.
275
LYMAN TRUMBULL.
Lyman Trumbull was born at Colchester, Connecticut, October
J2th, 1813. He was educated at Bacon Academy, in Colchester, one of
the best educational institutions of the kind in Ne.w England. When
only fifteen years of age, he taught the district school of the village, and
when twenty years old, took charge of an academy at Greenville, Georgia.
For some years he superintended this institution with great acceptability,
meantime studying law, which profession he had wisely decided to enter.
He was admitted to the bar in 1837, and soon removed to Illinois, estab-
lishing himself at Belleville, St. Clair county. He engaged actively in
his profession, and very early rose to eminence in it. In 1840 he was
nominated and elected member of the legislature from that county, and
the following year appointed Secretary of the State of Illinois. In 1848,
he was nominated and elected one of the Justices of the State Supreme
Court, and in 1852, re-elected for a term of nine years. He was dis-
tinguished for his keen discernment, accurate judgment, and perfect
acquaintance with organic and statute law, even at that early period of
his career.
In 1853, Mr. Trumbull resigned his position, and the next year was
elected to represent in Congress the Belleville District, then comprising
a large extent of territory. Before taking his seat in the House, the
legislature elected him to the United States Senate, for a term of six
o 7
years from March 4th, 1855. These successive promotions, occurring
with such rapidity, gave evidence of unusual ability on the part of Mr.
Trumbull, and showed his peculiar fitness for the duties and honors
of the high position he was called to fill.
The first term of Mr. Trumbull's senatorial office was replete with
work of a difficult and exciting nature. The political contest attending
the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law and the organization of the Terri-
tories of Kansas and Nebraska was necessarily severe, and stirred to the
depths the diverse elements of the nation. At this time, Mr. Trumbull,
who had formerly been a member of the Democratic party, joined the
cause of freedom and justice, becoming one of its most able defenders.
His arguments with Mr. Douglas and others holding like views in regard
to slavery were so pointed and forcible, and carried such weight that the
whole country soon became awakened to the consideration of that
momentous subject. In 1860, Mr. Trumbull's reputation having become
276 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
a national one, his name met with frequent mention in connection with
the Republican candidacy for President. He gave no encouragement to
this movement, but when Mr. Lincoln was nominated, supported his
election with intense earnestness. During the troublous times preceding
the opening of hostilities, Mr. Trumbull was one of the leaders of the
Union party in the Senate, and advocated prompt and decisive measures
for upholding the government.
The legislature of Illinois, in session in 1861, re-elected Mr. Trum-
bull for a term of six years. The exigencies of the succeeding four years
demanded constant activity of thought and speech from all connected
with the legislative department of the nation. Air. Trumbull was among
the first to propose the amendment of the constitution, abolishing slavery
in the United States. He held the position of Chairman of the Judiciary
Committee of the Senate for six years. During that time he framed and
advocated many important acts and resolutions which were passed by Con-
gress during and since the war. Among such acts was the one enlarging
the powers of the Freedmen's Bureau, and the Civil Rights Act. The
legislature of 1867 re-elected him to the Senate for a third term of six
years. At the expiration of his term he retired from Senatorial life-
After this he left the Republican party, and returning to his first love,
was the Democratic nominee for Governor in 1880, but was defeated.
Although never having graduated from any college, Mr. Trumbull
has acquired a broad and profound culture which at once denotes him
a scholar. He has twice received the title of Doctor of Laws, once from
McKendree College, Illinois, and once from Yale.
Mr. Trumbull has spent many of the best years of his life in the
service of his country, and has in return, won the unqualified respect of
all, whether agreeing with him politically or not. He is progressive,
yet not violent; and his views, though decided and forcibly expressed,
are never given in other than a peaceable spirit. He is brave, earnest
and judicious. His long and honorable course while in the Senate has
shown him to be one of the wisest and most faithful statesmen our coun-
try has yet known.
277
ISRAEL N. STILES.
I. N. Stiles, one of the most prominent and brilliant members of the
Chicago bar, and a man of rare personal worth, was born in Suffield,
Connecticut, in the year 1833. His father's name was Aaron and his
mother's Elvira. The son was educated in the common schools and in
the Connecticut Literary Institute, securing an excellent education and
laying the foundation for the strong character for which his manhood has
been distinguished.
In 1853 he came West, and settling at Lafayette, Indiana, engaged
in teaching a private school for boys and in studying law. In 1856 he
was admitted to the bar in Lafayette, and immediately began to exhibit
the talent with which nature endowed him, attracting public attention to
a degree that he was elected to the State legislature in 1857, and served
in that body during the session of 1857-8. At the very beginning of the
war of the rebellion — May, 1861 — he entered the army as a private of
the Twentieth Indiana Volunteers, but was soon after made Adjutant.
In June, 1862, he was taken prisoner at Malvern Hill, and was in the
famous or infamous Libby Prison for two months, when he was exchanged,
and afterward made Major of the Sixty-third Indiana Volunteers, and later
Lieutenant Colonel and Colonel. He was at Knoxville through the
Winter campaign, and was promoted to Brevet Brigadier General for
gallantry at Franklin, Tennessee. He left the army July 3d, 1865, having
made a record of which he may pardonably be proud, and which his
friends will always contemplate with the utmost satisfaction.
Upon leaving the military service he came to Chicago, arriving here
in October, 1865, and at once entered upon the practice of his profession.
From 1867 to 1869 he was the law partner of Judge McAllister, the
partnership being at that time terminated by the election of the latter to
the bench of the Recorder's Court. From 1869 to 1873 General Stiles
was City Attorney, and in all the official positions which he has held,
here or elsewhere, he has discharged the duties which they imposed with
great success and the strictest fidelity. His private practice is large and
of the best character, and his services are sought in very many of the
most important and difficult cases that come before our courts. A care-
ful counselor, and a close student of all the details of a case, his special
forte is, nevertheless, in the examination of witnesses and before the jury.
In an easy but certain way he reaches the desired result in a witness'
278 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
direct or cross examination, and when through, the witness scarcely
realizes that if he has intended to have his own way and make cer-
tain impressions, he has utterly failed; hut he has nevertheless. As
an advocate General Stiles rises to the full dignity of an accomplished
orator, now arraying the evidence in logical form before the jury; then
convulsing court, jury and spectators with laughter; again by a pathetic
appeal causing the tear to start in every eye, and deftly intermingling
with all a fine, clear cutting sarcasm which causes an opponent to shrink
as if from fire. Seldom, indeed, are the true elements of oratory so fully
represented in a lawyer.
Personally General Stiles is a polished and most genia.1 gentleman,
winning the love of all with whom he comes in contact in the social
circle, and making friends wherever he is known. He has been twice
married. His first wife, whom he married in 1860, was Jenny Coney, of
Sag Harbor, New York; she died in Chicago, April, 1877. He was
married the second time April, 1881, to Antoinette C. Wright. He has
three children, Theodosia, aged nineteen; Harry, fifteen, and Robin,
twelve.
379
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE FIRE OF 1874.
On the night of the fourteenth of July, 1874, Chicago was again
visited by an extensive conflagration, and one, which but for the memory
of the destruction of 1871, would have been considered appalling. The
EVENING JOURNAL on the day following the fire, said: "It might have
been worse, is the consolation left this morning as we gaze on the ruins
which mark the scene of last night's fii'e. About four o'clock in the
evening, fire was discovered in a shanty adjoining an oil factory on Taylor
street, between Fourth avenue and Clark street, and before the engines
arrived the flames had traveled over the rows of shanties that abounded in
that locality. Everything was favorable for a big conflagration. The wind
blew briskly from the southwest, the air was warm and the buildings that
stood in front of the fire were dry and combustible. The engines arrived
on the ground and went to work. A second alarm was turned in and then
a third, until every engine in the city was at the scene. The flames rose
high and swept on furiously. The air was full of sparks, and burning wood
borne in the wind dropped on roofs, and in less than no time buildings far
north of the firemen were in flames. The firemen were working behind
the fire for fully two hours. That was the mistake. Instead of keeping
in front thev were away in the rear fighting a column of flame that moved
toward them with irresistless swiftness, while at the same time buildings
a block north were catching, and there was not a single hose to play on
them and extinguish the fire in its incipiency. The flames spread quickly
from Third and Fourth avenues to State street, and in less than two hours
Wabash avenue was on fire. At this time it was apparent to everybody
that there was no use in trying to save buildings that had begun to burn.
All that could be done was to make a stand somewhere and prevent the
further progress of the flames. The key to the position was at Harrison
street. Up to that point frame buildings had furnished food to the flames,
but here was a line of brick and stone that might form a rampart against
the fast approaching destroyer. Engines were stationed on Harrison street
and at the Postoffice, which after the fire of 1871, was located in a church
at the corner of Harrison street and Wabash avenue. The line of build-
ings on the north side of the street were drenched from top to bottom. At
one time it seemed as if that might be the northern limit of devastation,
and probably it would have been had the frame buildings on the south side
of Harrison street been torn down or blown up before the fire engulfed
280 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
them. The firemen fought nobly, but there seemed to be no man with nerve
enough to order buildings already doomed, to be blown up so as to leave a
gap which the flames could not jump.
The postoffice cupola caught fire from a burning brand and instantly
was blazing from the stone work to the pinnacle. It was a grand and
awful sight at this moment, vast volumes of smoke rolling across the
heavens which were illuminated by the columns of flame which shot up
here and there from the burning buildings. The cupola burned brightly,
all efforts to reach it with the hose being unavailing. In ten minutes from
the time it caught down it came with a crash, the burning timbers falling
on the roof of the Money Order Department, setting it on fire, and then
the fate of the building was apparent to every spectator. Nearly at the
same time O'Neill's great liquor store caught, and the flames burst out
from front and rear, and the block was a mass of flame. In the meantime
the west side of Wabash avenue was eaten through away north of Harri-
son street, and the fire had jumped the street and laid hold of residences on
the east side. Nothing could be done; it was evident that the fire would
go to the lake. The heat was intense. The streets were filled by a multi-
tude of people, jostling, running, hurrying hither and thither, they knew
not where. Wagons were being driven away with rescued property
engines were whistling, hose were bursting on every block, firemen were
shrieking, women and children crying, men swearing, making altogether
a scene of indescribable confusion.
About nine o'clock Prussing's vinegar works, south of O'Neill's
building, were on fire,the flames soaring high in the air, and sending burn-
ing brands on their incendiary errands. Soon after a lot of shanties in the
rear of the St. James Hotel caught, and though the hotel stood it bravely
for half an hour, finally succumbed and went down in a gulf of fire. The
Adelphi Theater took no time f.o burn and by ten o'clock the flames had
visited Wabash avenue as far south as VanBuren Street. At eleven
o'clock the Michigan Avenue Hotel caught, and before midnight the fire
was as near the lake as it could get, having exhausted its fury and destroyed
everything in the direct line of its course."
The area burned over by this fire was about sixty acres, and the loss
although falling below the first estimate of four million dollars, was very
heavy. The location where the fire commenced was the worst and most
disreputable in the city, and in the attempts to find the lights among the
shades of the dark picture, the people concluded that the destruction of the
vile dens was among the brightest. The fire of 1871 began in a very
similar nest of low framed buildings, with the wind blowing in the same
direction. The saddest feature of the destruction was the large number of
poor people, and especially negroes, who were made shelterless. Usually
the rich can take care of themselves, but with home gone, furniture gone,
all gone, heaven pity the poor. Hundreds of poor families were made
homeless and hopeless. Considered, therefore, as affecting these individ-
uals the ruin was distressing, but considered as affecting the community
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 281
the source of this individual distress was the cause of sincere rejoicing, for
the rookeries which these people called their homes were a standing
menace to the safety of the city.
Many very fine buildings, however, were swept away, and others
escaped but by the merest chance, among these being the Exposition Build-
ing, the Gardner House and Matteson House. The Jones School building
erected a year before on the south west corner of Harrison street and Third
avenue, fell before the holocaust. O'Neill's liquor store at the northeast
corner of State and Harrison streets was one of the finest buildings in the
city. The St. James Hotel, situated at the corner of VanBuren and State
streets, was early doomed. The First Baptist Church, the Michigan
Avenue Methodist Churcb, in which the post office was located, the Adelphi
Theater — formerly Aiken's — the Inter Oceanic building, the fine residences
of Mrs. Ira Couch, B. P. Hutchinson, E. G. Hall and C. Beckwith, the
Continental, Wood's, Berg and Michigan Avenue hotels, and the Hebrew
Synagogue at the corner of Wabash avenue and Peck court, were among
the ruins.
As might naturally have been expected, the populace was greatly
excited. The possibility of the total annihilation of the city had been
graphically demonstrated three years before, and the people had not for-
gotten it. Consequently stores were rapidly emptied of their merchandise,
and teams loaded with goods of every conceivable character, were hasten-
ing through the crowded streets to some place of safety. As far north as
Lake street, merchants proceeded to pack up their stocks, in order to be
ready for an emergency. With their former experience, the people seemed
to anticipate the worst, and load after load of goods were transported to
the West Side. Field, Leiter & Company shared in the general alarm,
and when to the general observer their store did not seem in the remotest
•danger, they set to work to empty it of its contents, conveying their entire
retail stock across the river.
The track of the flames being largely through a disreputable section of
the city, the fallen and degraded were unceremoniously tipped out into the
street, without even the consolation of enjoying the usual sympathy ex-
tended to the victims of misfortune. On Third and Fourth avenues, Polk
street, Clark and State streets, the unfortunate inmates of the dens which
were so numerous, were rushing hither and thither, wringing their hands,
moaning and shedding bitter tears. About five hundred of these frail
creatures were driven from their wretched homes, losing all that they had,
for many of them had barely time enough to save themselves.
Such an extensive and rapid conflagration must almost necessarily
result in the loss of human life. Fortunately, however, fewer lives were
sacrificed on this occasion than might reasonably have been expected.
There were seven bodies found in the ruins, and it is likely that those
comprised the extent of the loss of life.
The total amount which the insurance companies had at risk in
the district was two million, seven hundred and twenty thousand, two
282 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZKNS.
hundred and ninety dollars, and the salvage amounting to four hundred
and eighty-two thousand, three hundred and twenty dollars, left the liabili-
ties of the companies at two million, two hundred and forty- four thousand,
nine hundred and seventy dollars.
How the fire originated, and how such conflagrations were to be pre-
vented in the future were important matters which received the attention
of the people. Suspicion did not attach to a lamp, or cow or woman this
time, but the cause of the disaster was diligently and legitimately sought.
The theory of incendiarism became current, and Nathan Isaacson was
arrested and had an examination upon the charge of starting the big blaze.
It was proved upon examination that Isaacson offered a witness a hundred
dollars to set fire to the building in which the fire originated, and one
witness swore that he saw the wife of the prisoner with matches in her
hand a few minutes before the fire broke out. Two weeks before, there
was a slight fire in the locality where the conflagration begun, and a wit-
ness swore on Isaacson's examination that he had heard the accused
boastfully say that the next time he would give it a better touch. Isaac-
son and his wife were bound over to the grand jury, together with three
of the witnesses, the court remarking that he was .satisfied that this fire
started where the one two weeks previous started, but that the witnesses
had shown entirely too much feeling to make it absolutely certain that
they were telling the truth. For a time, indeed, there was a mania for
suspicioning incendiarism, and it operated something like the belief which
sometimes springs from the imagination that we can smell "something
burning" in the house. It operated, however, no doubt, to deter any who-
were inclined to commit this dastardly crime from indulging their pro-
pensity, but little was done with the several who were arrested for subse-
quent incendiarism, and we believe that Isaacson was never convicted of the
alleged offense.
As is usual at such times, everybody whose duties brought them in
connection with the fire was severely censured for doing or not doing,
as the case happened to be. Mayor Colvin was condemned for not giving
the order to blowup buildings; Mathias Benner, the Fire Marshal, was
censured for incompetency, and the Mayor was so deeply impressed with
the truth of the allegations that he expressed the opinion that the Marshal
should be superseded; the fire commissioners were loudly denounced, and
it was charged that some of the fire department were actually intoxi-
cated during the progress of the fire. When the excitement wore
off, however, all these indictments were withdrawn, and the general
verdict is that all parties did the best they could under the circumstances.
That mistakes were made is probable; in fact impartial history must
record the fact that there were mistakes. But it is one thing to criticise
the management of a battle, and quite another thing to fight it. With
acres of fire rolling over a city, aijd gathering strength and fury every
moment, the most experienced and competent men will be pardoned for
failing to connect their thoughts or to argue to correct conclusions, as
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 283
readily as even the most inexperienced and incompetent can do in the
quiet of the home where no terrible danger threatens. Mathias Benner,
the condemned Fire Marshal, continued to occupy the position for several
years after the sad catastrophe, and when he left the department the almost
universal verdict was that his place would be difficult to fill.
But the excitement of the people took other and more commendable
shape than this, and the results were valuable. It was the fixed determi-
nation to have the fire ordinances obeyed to the letter and to get rid of the
many wooden structures which had been temporarily constructed in viola-
tion of the spirit of the ordinances, but still with the permission of the
authorities. A mass meeting of the citizens was called and held at
McCormick Hall on the evening of July i9th, 1874, of which the EVENING
JOURNAL of the following Monday said: "McCormick Hall was filled
Saturday night by the citizens of Chicago, assembled for the purpose of
discussing means to prevent the recurrence of another great fire. Colonel
Hammond called the meeting to order, and named W. F. Coolbaugh
for permanent chairman. He struck the key note of the meeting in his
opening speech : 'First, make the fire limits co-extensive with the city
limits. Second, enforce the ordinance which is violated by the toleration
of rookeries in the old burned district.' On these two points the meeting
was harmonious, and every committee of conference small or great has
echoed this command. As Mr. Coolbaugh urged, the poor men who own
their humble homes, and no more, may find it hard to build brick cottages,
but they cannot afford to be exposed to another great conflagration. The
truth is that all classes of property holders, high and low, rich and poor,
have a common interest on this subject, and by this time all must see.it. It
is encouraging to see with what unanimity and zeal the removal of the
rookeries from the business portion of the city is being demanded. Not
only have old shanties of that kind remained, but new ones are going up.
It is probable that Aiken's Theater would not have been burned, had it
not been for the unlawful tinder boxes south and west of it. No time
should be lost in securing their removal.
We quite agree with Charles Randolph, who made one of the most
sensible speeches of the evening, that it is not enough to have incombusti-
ble outer walls, and that strict care should be observed in the interior
construction of buildings, especially large buildings. That iron shutters
should protect the windows is another good suggestion, and upon this the
underwriters strenuously insist. Other pertinent suggestions were made.
Some of them, such as the laying out of small parks here and there, and
widening streets, need not be discussed immediately, for action cannot be
taken for some time yet upon the matter; but the other points mentioned
call for immediate action on the part of the authorities."
It will be seen that in the flurry of the hour some extreme and impos-
sible measures were suggested, but that was pardonable, especially so since
it did not prevent or retard the suggestions of really valuable measures.
One valuable result of the fire was the organization by the under-
284 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
writers of a Fire Patrol, under the command of Captain Benjamin Bull-
winkle. This force has been in existence Aver since, and is one of the
most useful and efficient fire organizations in the world. It is equipped
with Babcock fire extinguishers, and with rubber blankets for the protec-
tion of merchandise from damage by water. It is the means of saving a
vast deal of property every year.
Thus ends the record of Chicago's second and last great fire up to
this writing, and certainly it is to be hoped that it will be the last forever.
The city, upon common principles of reasoning, has had its share of mis-
fortune of that character and is now entitled to immunity.
CHAPTER XIX.
CHICAGO JOURNALISM.
The first newspaper in Chicago, which was first issued November
26th, 1833, was called the CHICAGO DEMOCRAT, and was edited and pub-
lished by John Calhoun. The following list of subscribers would hardly
be sufficient to pay the current weekly expenses of a live weekly paper,
but the subscriptions and advertising kept the DEMOCRAT in existence, and
the following names of subscribers are worthy of record :
Nelson R. Norton,
Benjamin Hall,
N. Carpenter,
Hiram Lumbard,
Samuel Harmon,
J. W. Reed,
Walter Kimball,
William Taylor,
H. Barnes,
E. Brown,
Ahisa Hubbard,
R. E. Herrick,
Thomas Hoyt,
Edward E. Hunter,
John Noble,
Ford Freeman,
Hiram Pease,
A. Lloyd,
C. & I. Harmon,
Chester Ingersoli,
Dr. W. Clark,
John Miller,
Samuel Brown,
Newberry & Dole,
G. Kercheval,
James Kinzie,
E. A. Rider,
H. B. Clark,
Robert Kinzie,
W. H. Brown,
B. Jones,
I. Allen,
J. K. Botsford,
J. B. Tuttle,
Col. R. I. Hamilton,
Charles Wisencraft,
E. S. Thrall,
John Wright,
The DEMOCRAT was sold on the fourteenth of November, 1836, to
Horatio Hill, and was by him transferred to a young man, without capital
or influence, since become noted as John Wentworth. From this
beginning a mighty press has sprung up in the metropolis of the Westr
Oliver Losier,
John Marshall,
S. Ellis,
Isaac Harmon,
C. B. Dodson,
L. Barnes,
Richard Steele,
Henry Hopkins,
Elijah Clark,
William Taylor,
Mark Beaubien,
John H. Kenzie,
Paul Burdeck,
Mancel Talcott,
August Penoyer,
Jones & King,
J. Dean Caton,
Eli B. Williams,
Samuel Wayman,
Archibald Clybourne,
Augustus Rugsby,
Silas Cobb,
Abel Breed,
E. W. Haddock,
Irad Hill,
Albert Forbes,
Dr. Maxwell,
Hiram Hugenin,
P. S. Updyke,
John L. Sergerts,
John Watk:.ns,
Mathias Mason,
John Well maker,
I. Solomon,
N. F. Ilurd,
James Mitchell,
Philo Carpenter,
Robert Williston,
John Davis,
H.C. West,
Byron Gurin,
John T. Temple,
William Cooley,
Rathbone Sanford,
Orsemus Morrison,
James Walker,
Gilbert Carpenter,
Benjamin Briggs,
W. Vanderberg,
Benjamin F. Barker,
Samuel Brown,
H. I. Cleveland,
S. C. Gage,
B. Caldwell,
Charles Viana,
Lt. L. T. Jamieson,
Librarian Ft. Dearborn,
E. Wentworth,
George Walker,
Stephen E. Downer,
Abel E. Carpenter,
John Beaubien,
Ppa-ker M. Cole,
J. R. Brown,
Solomon Lincoln,
F. Forbes,
C. H. Chapman,
Platt Thorn,
J. P. Brady,
Jacob G. Patterson,
George Hertington,
Alexander N. Fullerton,
M. K. Brown,
Silas W. Sherman.
286 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
rivaling and even surpassing the newspapers and journals of the East and
the world. THE TIMES, TRIBUNE, INTER-OCEAN, JOURNAL and NEWS
are the English and the ILLINOIS STAATS ZEITUNG and FRIE PRESSE
are the German dailies which have led Chicago journalism to its present
eminence.
The first daily newspaper published in Chicago or Illinois was issued
April pth, 1839, by William Stewart, and was called the AMERICAN. Two
years later Buckner S. Morris became it's proprietor and continued to pub-
lish it until October iyth, 1842, when its publication was discontinued. On
the thirty-first of this month, however, the first issue of the EXPRESS,
under the proprietorship of W. W. Bracket, came from the press, and so
Chicago was not long without a daily newspaper. In 1844 a joint stock
company was organized for the purpose of publishing a Whig paper,
and the EXPRESS was purchased and merged into the JOURNAL, the first
number of which was issued April twenty-second. The parties selected
by the stockholders to manage the paper were J. Lisle Smith, William H.
Brown, George W. Meeker, Jonathan Young Scammon, Grant Goodrich,
Richard L. Wilson and John W. Norris. At the close of the presidential
campaign of that year the JOURNAL passed into the hands of Richard L.
Wilson, who a few years later associated with him his brother, Charles
L. Wilson, the firm being Richard L. & Charles L. Wilson. In Decem-
ber, 1856, Richard L. Wilson died, and Charles L. became sole proprietor-
Upon the demise of the old Whig party, the JOURNAL became Re-
publican in politics, and has advocated the claims of that party down to the
present time. In 1861 Mr. Wilson accepted the position of Secretary to
the American Legation at London, and upon his departure left the JOUR-
NAL in charge of John L. Wilson, as publisher, and of Andrew Shuman,
as editor. Mr. Wilson resigned his office in 1864, and returned to his
paper, which had greatly increased in value during the years of his absence.
In 1869 John L. Wilson severed his connection with the paper and Henry
W. Farrar became business manager.
In the conflagration of 1871 the JOURNAL lost its building and all its
material, but like the other brave and energetic sufferers from that visita-
tion, Mr. Wilson was equal to the emergency, and hiring the material of
a job office on the West Side, the paper was published on time, and never
missed an issue. After the fire the publisher built a fine building on
Dearborn street, between Madison and. Monroe, directly opposite the old
postoffice, now Haverly's Theater, and the paper has been published
there ever since.
Charles L. Wilson died in 1875, at San Antonio, Texas, whither he had
gone in search of health. Before his death he had organized a stock
company for the publication of the JOURNAL, himself being President
and Henry W. Farrar, Secretary. Nearly all the stock was owned by
Mr. Wilson, and at his death, Mrs. Wilson and an only daughter became
its owners. Andrew Shuman was now elected President of the comoany,
and remained the editor of the paper, which position he had held since 1861.
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 287
On the first of March, 1880, the company leased the establishment to
Andrew Shuman and John R. Wilson, who have the privilege of purchas-
ing the stock now owned by Mrs. Wilson and her daughter at any time
during the continuance of the lease.
Thus the JOURNAL has been published for thirty-six years, and has
won an enviable place in the history of Chicago journalism. It is steady-
going and reliable, avoiding sensationalism, and is frank and fair in the
treatment of men and public questions.
The TRIBUNE was first issued July loth, 1847, anc^ was stal'ted by
John J. Kelly, John E. Wheeler and J. C. K. Forest. The name was
suggested by Mr. Forest, and as Mr. Wheeler had been in the employ of
the New York TRIBUNE, he readily assented to its adoption. It was
independent in politics, but was somewhat tinctured with free soil notions.
Its first issue was four hundred copies, and was printed on a hand- press,
which was operated by one of the proprietors. Thomas A. Stewart
purchased Mr. Kelly's interest very soon after the paper was started, and
in the month of September, 1847, Mr. Forest retired, leaving the concern
in the hands of Wheeler & Stewart, by whom the business was conducted
until August 23d, 1848, when John L. Scripps purchased a third interest,
the name of the firm being Wheeler, Stewart & Scripps. In May, 1857,
the establishment was unfortunate enough to be destroyed by fire, but fire
does not seem to frighten Chicago people very much, and the TRIBUNE
continued to thrive as if no baptism of flame had been its portion. Its
prosperity, however, in those days, looked at from the shadow of its pres-
ent power and influence, appears hardly distinguishable from adversity. In
1860 it had a circulation of only one thousand, one hundred and twenty,
but that that was considered prosperity is evidenced by the fact that the
paper was enlarged to the size of twenty-six by forty inches.
On the seventh of July, 1857, Thomas J. Waite purchased Mr.
Wheeler's interest, and became the business manager. In June of the
following } ear, a party of prominent Whigs purchased Mr. Scripps' third
interest, and William Duane Wilson assumed the editorial management.
Mr. Waite dying in August, 1852, his interest was purchased by Henry
Fowler, and in March of the year following Mr. Wilson sold his interest
to Henry Fowler, Timothy Wright and J. D. Webster, who published
the paper under the name and style of Henry Fowler & Company until
the June following, when Joseph Medill bought an interest and the firm
name was changed to Wright, Medill & Company.
The year 1855 witnessed more changes in the proprietorship and
management of the paper. Alfred Coles was admitted to the firm, and the
proprietors were then C. H. Ray, Joseph Medill, John C. Vaughan
and Alfred Coles. C. H. Ray and J. C. Vaughan were announced as
editors. Mr. Vaughan retired March 26th, 1857, and the name of the firm
became Ray, Medill & Company, which style was retained until July ist,
1858, at which time the TRIBUNE and DEMOCRATIC PRESS were consoli-
dated.
288 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZKNS.
The first number of the DEMOCRATIC PRESS, whose history is so
intimately connected with the TRIBUNE, was issued September i6th, 1852,
by John L. Scripps and William Bross. Originally it was a conservative
Democratic paper, but after the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill it
became free soil, and later, at the organization of the Republican party,
it became the advocate of the principles of that party. The TRIBUNE and
DEMOCRATIC PRESS occupying the same grounds politically, it was
deemed the part of wisdom on the part of their respective proprietors to
consolidate the two papei's, and the consolidation was effected at the date
above mentioned, and the paper was called the TRIBUNE AND PRESS until
October 25111, 1861, when the word PRESS was dropped. The legislature
of 1861-2 granted a charter to C. H. Ray, Joseph Medill, Alfred Coles,
John L. Scripps and William Bross, incorporating them under the name
of the Tribune Company.
In 1 868 the company began the erection of a building on the south-
east corner of Madison and Dearborn streets. The building was thought
to be fire proof, but it went down before the flames of 1871. An elegant
building, however, was immediately erected on the site, and the establish-
ment is one of the best equipped in the country. The Tribune Company
is now officered as follows: President, William Bross; Vice President,
Joseph Medill; Secretary and Treasurer, Alfred Coles. Joseph Medill is
editor-in-chief and Samuel J. Medill is managing editor.
The TRIBUNE has been a constant advocate of Republican principles,
except for a short time under the editorial management of Horace White,
when it advocated the election of Horace Greeley, the nominee of the
Democratic party for the Presidency. This course was not satisfactory to
the stockholders, and Mr. Medill, its former editor, having retired upon
his election to the Mayoralty of the city, was reinstated and the paper
brought back to its former political position.
The TRIBUNE is one of the best paying newspaper establishments in
the country, and has a very fine circulation. It is ably conducted, and from
a very small beginning has risen to an enviable position of affluence and
influence.
THE CHICAGO TIMES is one of the marvels of marvelous Chicago,
and the most important and interesting portion of its history is the record
of the life of its proprietor, Wilbur F. Storey, who has made THE TIMES
what it now is — a newspaper which is unsurpassed in enterprise and
excellence in the journalism of America. Nearly all that need be said
about THE TIMES is embodied in a biographical sketch of Mr. Storey's life, •
which will be found at the close of this chapter, and which has been care-
fully prepared from data furnished by one of his most intimate friends.
He is among the very few sole proprietors of powerful newspapers in the
country, and is entitled to the distinction among that few of having created
the valuable establishment which he possesses and controls.
THE TIMES was established in 1854, and was devoted to the advocacy
of the principles of the Democratic party, and was the organ of Stephen
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 389
A. Douglas. Pecuniarily it was an entire failure until it fell into Mr.
Storey's hands. Among its several proprietors from its first issue until
that time, was the great inventor and manufacturer, Cyrus H. McCormick.
Mr. Storey purchased the paper in 1861, and immediately inaugurated a
policy which was exceedingly expensive, but which was sure to make THE
TIMES the great newspaper that it now is. Immediately upon the assump-
tion of control, Mr. Storey made THE TIMES a fearless and uncompromising
journal. It attacked men and measures, whenever they deserved it, with-
out fear or favor, and in accordance with the true principles of successful
journalism, it has never stopped to consider what the personal consequences
might be in any expose or contest that it essayed to make. For nearly
twenty years the management of THE TIMES has been thus vigorous, and
has placed the name of its editor and proprietor among the brightest of
American journalists.
THE TIMES continued Democratic, until the nomination of Mr. Greeley
by the Democracy, when it refused to support the ticket, and ever since
has been independent in politics.
When Mr. Storey purchased the paper, it was printed upon a single
cylinder press, which was incapable of turning out more than a thousand
an hour; it was edited and printed in small quarters on Dearborn street,
and was in every respect a very diminutive foundation for its present
greatness. Now the paper is printed upon eight presses, from each of
which ten thousand copies an hour are delivered, not only printed, but
' folded and ready for the perusal of the reader. When Mr. Storey came
into possession, the editorial and reportorial force was not even a half dozen
men; now the editorial, reportorial and clerical force, with special corres-
pondents, who are in every part of the civilized world, numbers over four
hundred. The annual expenditure for special telegraphic dispatches is
about one hundred thousand dollars, and it has maintained this for years.
As the New York HERALD is a monument to commemorate the life of
James Gordon Bennett, so THE CHICAGO TIMES will keep green the memo-
ry of Wilbur F. Storey long after he has laid down to sleep with the fathers.
The INTER-OCEAN was started by Jonathan Young Scammon, and the
first number was issued March 25th, 1872. The paper was built upon the ruins
of the REPUBLICAN, which paper was unable to recover from the fire of
1871, and Mr. Scammon purchased its Associated Press franchise. The
REPUBLICAN was published by Mr. Scammon for a short time, and until
all arrangements were made for starting the INTER-OCEAN. With new men
and new material the first issue came forth with the declaration : "Indepen-
dent in nothing; Republican in everything." There was not much to boast
of in the first half of its motto, and not much intelligence in the other half.
But while its motto indicated that it was a slave to everything and every-
body, and that it would be what was impossible under very many
circumstances, the real intention was to announce that in politics it would
be stalwart Republican; and that it has been during its entire existence.
Mr. Scammon was the sole proprietor of the INTER-OCEAN, until
290 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
1873, when Frank W. Palmer, for the last several years Postmaster of
Chicago, purchased a considerable interest, and became the editor. The
paper, however, did not pay, and Mr. Palmer was a considerable loser.
In 1875 the indebtedness of the concern forced a transfer of the establish-
ment to other parties, and this placed the control of the paper in the hands
of William Penn Nixon.
The daily circulation of the INTER-OCEAN will compare favorably
with the older dailies, and it has a weekly circulation of about one hun-
dred thousand. It is fairly edited, is respectable, and is noted for being
less sensational than very many daily papers of the present day.
The ILLINOIS STAATS ZEITUNG, one of the most influential German
journals in the country, first appeared as a weekly in the Spring of 1848,
and was- published by Robert HoefFgen, who started the paper upon a
capital of two hundred dollars. In the Fall of 1848 Dr. Hellmuth became
the editor. After the presidential election of that year, Dr. Hellmuth was
succeeded by Arno Voss, who was succeeded in 1849 by Herman Kriege.
In 1850 Dr. Hellmuth again assumed the editorial management, and the
paper became a semi-weekly. On the twenty-fifth of August, 1851,
George Schneider became connected with the paper and changed it into
a daily, which had only seventy subscribers, and the weekly had only about
two hundred. George Hillgaertner afterward became interested with Mr.
Schneider in the publication of the STAATS ZEITUNG, and in 1854 the .
circulation had increased to eight hundred. In 1861 William Rapp be-
came the editor, but was succeeded in the same year by Lorenz Brentano,
who purchased Mr. HoefFgen's interest. In the following year the interest
of Mr. Schneider was purchased by A. C. Hesing. Brentano and Hesing
were associated in the publication of the paper until 1867, when Brentano
sold his interest to Hesing, and Herman Raster became editor-in-chief,
which position he now holds.
The fire of 1871 destroyed the office and material of the paper, but
the paper appeared within forty-eight hours after the conflagration. The
building now occupied by the paper on the corner of Washington street
and Fifth avenue was built for it, and first occupied on the tenth of March,
1872. The cost of the building and the material was nearly three hundred
thousand dollars.
The STAATS ZEITUNG is now a largely circulated and influential
paper. It is Republican in politics, and its influence is considered extremely
valuable.
The CHICAGO DAILY NEWS made its first appearance on the twentieth
of December, 1875, under the proprietorship of Percy R. Meggy, William
E. Dougherty and Mellville E. Stone. In 1876 Mr. Stone purchased the
interests of his other partners and became sole proprietor. In August of
this year Victor F. Lawson purchased an interest in the paper, and bring-
ing into the enterprise the necessary capital, the NEWS has grown until its
daily circulation is upward of fifty thousand. The firm name of the pub-
lishers is Victor F. Lawson & Company, Mr. Lawson attending to the
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 391
business details, and his partner, Mr. Stone, managing the editorial depart-
ment. The NEWS is independent in politics, and circulating, as it does,
among thousands who read nox other paper, it exerts an influence, which
to the extent of that kind of circulation may be characterized as something
near autocratic.
Dr. Rufus Blanchard's History of Chicago contains the following
history of the LEGAL NEWS: The CHICAGO LEGAL NEWS is the oldest
weekly legal journal in the Western States. The first number was issued
October 3d, 1868, by Myra Bradwell, as editor and publisher. In Febru-
ary, 1869, the legislature, by special Act, incorporated the editor and her
associates under the title of The Chicago Legal News Company. Several
Acts were also passed, providing that all laws and decisions of the Supreme
Court of Illinois, printed in this journal, should be taken as prima facie
evidence in all the courts of the State, and it was declared to be a good
and valid medium for the publication of all legal notices.
As its name implies, it is devoted mainly to legal matters, and pub-
lishes the most important decisions of the Supreme Court of Illinois in
advance of the reports; the decisions of the District and Circuit Courts of
the United States; head notes from the reports of the various State Supreme
Courts in advance of the regular issues; abstracts of recent English cases,
and the latest general legal intelligence.
The LEGAL NEWS has been foremost in advocating reforms in the
laws of the State, axnd many of the changes first suggested in its columns
have received the sanction of the legislature.
The agricultural press of Chicago is in influence and respectability
at the head of that class of publications in the country, and as it includes
the journal upon which the Editor of this book is employed, it is due to
him to say that he is only one of a corps of editors, and that so small a
figure does his work cut in the general make up of the paper, that what
he may say in regard to THE WESTERN RURAL will be absolutely relieved
of any taint of egotism, but will be the unprejudiced judgment of one
man upon the merits and success of his fellows.
THE WESTERN RURAL was brought into existence at Detroit, Mich-
igan, on the third of September, 1864, and almost immediately sprung into
popular favor and the exercise of a commanding influence. There was not
at that time near the degree of enterprise upon the part of the daily
press which it now shows, and such a thing as an agricultural department
in the weekly editions of the dailies was unknown. An agricultural paper,
therefore, if conducted with even moderate ability, had an unobstructed
pathway to success. The founder of the paper knew practically nothing
about agriculture, and in some other respects was disqualified for building
up a great agricultural journal. Still under the favorable circumstances
which surrounded the enterprise, among which was the encoiu'agement of
the pi-ess — which as then conducted could afford to give encouragement — the
undertaking was crowned with the most unmistakable victory. It was not
much of a paper in its beginning, in whatever light it may be looked at}
292 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
and the files of the earlier volumes are preserved only because they are
the infancy of the stalwart maturity which has since been attained.
Beginning life at Detroit, the original intention was undoubtedly to
furnish a farm paper for Michigan alone, but the entire West appeared
to want some kind of a change in agricultural literature, and the circula-
tion Westward seemed to demand the establishment of an office in
Chicago, and the general patronage of the paper warranted its enlargement.
The paper was consequently enlarged in -July, 1865, and in December of
the same year its publication was commenced at Chicago and Detroit
simultaneously. In 1866 it was found necessary to make the Chicago office
the principal publishing office, and on January jd, 1867, the paper was
issued with Chicago as the place of publication, a branch office being
maintained at Detroit. The branch office was finally discontinued, and
since then the paper has had its home exclusively at Chicago.
With other great publications, the office and material of the paper
were wiped out of existence by the fire of 1871, and that catastrophe, to-
gether with defective management, was more than the concern was
able to bear up under. The publisher established himself on the West
Side, and the paper was issued regularly, but its course financially was from
bad to worse, until, so far as its founder and publisher was concerned, it
collapsed. During the time of the paper's greatest misfortunes, Milton
George, a farmer of Fulton county, Illinois, was induced from time to
time to loan money to the publisher of the paper, until the aggregate was
over seventeen thousand dollars. In the Spring of 1866 the troubles of the
publisher culminated in the sale of the paper and material under foreclosure
of a chattel mortgage, and Garrett L. Hoodless became the purchaser and
publisher. For some reason, however, the original mortgage was not
canceled, and in addition to it a further incumbrance was placed upon the
concern in the shape of a mortgage given by Mr. Hoodless. Mr. George
was naturally anxious to get possession of the paper, in order, if possible,
to recover the losses he had suffered, and to this end, and with a view of
having all the circumstances of the sale under the mortgage explained, he
applied to the United States District Court, in which the former publisher
had filed proceedings in bankruptcy, for an injunction to prevent Mr.
Hoodless from disposing of the paper, and also filed a bill asking that the
sale might be set aside. The injunction was granted, and affairs remained
in that condition until July ist, 1876, when Mr. George purchased the two
mortgages upon the paper and took possession under them, proceeding
immediately to take steps toward their foreclosure. Before the day of sale
arrived, however, an agreement was effected with Mr. Hoodless by which
he transferred his equity to Mr. George, and the foreclosure became un-
necessary. In the following Spring the United States Court confirmed
the sale, and the title became complete.
The paper was now owned and published by Milton George, but just
how valuable the concern was, was a matter of considerable doubt. There
were debts amounting to thousands of dollars, which for the good of the
CHICAGO* AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 293
paper must be liquidated, and under all the circumstances it is doubtful if
a newspaper man could have been found willing to give ten thousand dol-
lars for the establishment. Mr. George, however, went to work to release
the concern from its indebtedness, and with energy and perseverance, which
are among the most prominent traits of his character, met and triumphed
over the many difficulties that beset his path. He imbued every depart-
ment of. the paper with new life, and made it outspoken as an advocate of
the farmer's interests and upon all public questions. Never since he has
been its proprietor, has any question of policy been allowed to influence
the tone of its editorials. "Find out what is right, and then go ahead, let
the consequences be what they may," is the rule established by Mr. George
for the guidance of his editorial corps. In the business department the
same standard of honesty and honor is adhered to. No advertising which
is not strictly straight can secure admission to the columns of the paper,
whatever prospect of pecuniary gain may be sacrificed.
THE WESTERN RURAL from the very first of Mr. George's assump-
tion of control has been a leading and influential advocate of what is
popularly called Cheap Transportation, or strict government control of
railroads. The paper has done a mighty work in this cause, and has
aroused the farming community to action all over the country.
The paper occupies fine and commodious quarters on Dearborn street,
next to the Journal building, is valued at from forty thousand to fifty
thousand dollars, and is a monument to its publisher's enterprise, tact and
straightforward business career.
The PRAIRIE FARMER was established in January, 1841. It was
edited by John S. Wright, and published monthly under the auspices of
the Union Agricultural Society, which was incorporated February ipth,
1839. The name of the paper in full was THE UNION AGRICULTURIST
AND WESTERN PRAIRIE FARMER. In form it was a small quarto of
four columns. THE ILLINOIS FARMER, established the year before at
Springfield, Illinois, by C. M. Polk, was merged in the PR'AIRIE FARMER,
or THE UNION AGRICULTURIST, as it was then more generally
called.
In later files the Union Agricultural Society disappears from the
imprimatur, and the publication is under the individual control of John S.
Wright, with whom J. Ambrose Wight was associated as editor. While
the size of the page is reduced the scope seems to have been enlarged, for
it assumed to be a journal of Western Agriculture, Mechanics and
Education, with John Gage as the editor of the mechanical department.
The office of publication was first at 112 Lake street, and later at 171
the same street.
It continued as a monthly until the latter part of 1855, when it began
to be issued as a weekly. On the first of October, 1858, the publication
was assumed by Emery & Company, who continued to issue the paper
from 204 Lake street, having merged in it EMERY'S JOURNAL OF AGRI-
CULTURE. Its scope still more enlarged, it professed itself to be devoted
294 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
to Agriculture, Horticulture, Mechanics, Education, Home Interests, Gen-
eral News, Markets, etc.
In the Spring of 1867 a charter was obtained, and thenceforward it
was published by the Prairie Farmer Company. At this time it was a
small quarto of three columns and sixteen pages. In 1868 the form was
changed to that of a five column large quarto of eight pages, and in 1869
a further enlargement took place, making the present form of eight pages
and six columns to the page.
In May, 1870, its new building at 112 Monroe street was occupied. In
connection with the publication of the paper a well equipped printing
office was set up, and an era of prosperity seemed to have been inaugurated.
The next important incident in the life of the paper was the fire of October,
1871. From this disaster little beside the subscription books was saved;
but the indestructible good will of the paper remained, and without missing
a single issue the PRAIRIE FARMER appeared regularly for a season from
a temporary office of publication on West Randolph street. The office
was next moved to 674 Wabash avenue, and the paper was published
from there until 1873, when the present commodious quarters at 118 Mon-
roe street were occupied.
Through all changes of residence and vicissitudes of fortune the. tone
of the paper has not altered in any respect. • During its life it has employed
a variety of talent of no mean order of merit, and it has been in some
sense a training school of literary ability that has blossomed out in other
fields than that of agricultural journalism.
With the marvelous extension of agricultural industry throughout the
Northwest and South, during the past few years, the PRAIRIE FARMER
has endeavored to keep pace, and while the quantity of its matter can in
no wise keep pace with the area of cultivation, in spirit and quality of
contents it has aimed to represent and encourage the enterprise which has
made this blooming Western agricultural empire a possibility and a fact.
The RELIGIO-PHILOSOPHICAL JOURNAL is an exponent of modern •
spiritualism primarily, but includes within its scope the arts and sciences,
literature and general reform. It was established in 1865 by the Religio-
Philosophical Publishing Association, a corporation whose charter con-
tained almost unlimited powers. Stevens S. Jones was the originator
of the undertaking, and drew the bill and secured the passage of the Act of
incorporation by the legislature of Illinois. The Association bought the
printing office of J. S. Thompson, located at 84, 86 and 88 Dearborn
street, and with the additions made to the establishment it was the finest
office west of Buffalo for general job printing and book work. The first
number of the RELIGIO-PHILOSOPHICAL JOURNAL was dated August
26th, 1865. The regular weekly publication began with the issue of the
second number, October 7th, 1865. Mr. Jones was the editor of the paper,
as well as the President of the Association, and bent all his energies, aided
* O 7
by the experience of a long and successful business career, to increasing
the strength of the corporation and the circulation of the paper and other
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 295
publications. So far as human foresight could predict, the Association
was already firmly established and on the high road to great power and
influence. It had within it, however, the seeds of death. The stock-
holders and directors were all ignorant of the business, and, therefore, easily
worked upon by designing men anxious to get the control of so promising
an enterprise. The result was that at the annual election of officers on
November 2^th, 1866, a complete change in the management was accom-
plished. Mr. Jones went out of office and, as was soon demonstrated, a
set of inexperienced and irresponsible men gained control. A politician,
then a member of the State legislature, became President of the Associ-
ation. He secured an amendment to the charter changing the name of the
corporation. The name of the paper was also changed. In less than a
year the concern was bankrupt, and one of the directors, who was also the
largest creditor, and held a mortgage on the property, appealed to Mr. Jones
to come forward and save the institution and help him out of his perplex-
ities. But it was too late to save the Association which with its splendid
charter and prospects passed into oblivion. Mr. Jones now busied himself
with efforts to resuscitate the paper under its original name, and in a short
time re-issued the RELIGIO-PHILOSOPHICAL JOURNAL.
At first the director and mortgagee of the old concern, hereinbefore
referred to, was associated with Mr. Jones in the revival of the paper, but
getting discouraged, at the constant excess of expenditures over receipts, he
declined to meet his share of the expenses and withdrew. The unfortunate
history of the first attempt and the necessity of supplying to subscribers
the paper for their unexpired subscriptions made its publication any-
thing but an easy or promising undertaking, but with undaunted faith
in its ultimate success the editor and proprietor toiled on. Time proved
his faith well founded. The great fire found the paper in a fairly pros-
perous condition, and in a few hours swept out of existence twenty thousand
dollars' worth of property belonging to the office, on which only fifteen
dollars of insurance was ever recovered. Nothing was saved but the mail
list and account books. The office was burned on Sunday night, but on Tues-
day morning the paper, in diminutive form, was issued from a little office
on the West Side. Twenty-five girls were set to work mailing the edition,
and before the embers of the old office had cooled thousands of subscribers
throughout the country were reading with painful emotions the little sheet.
Borrowing money to pay traveling expenses to New York, the proprietor
started for a new outfit. The next issue was printed in Philadelphia, and
after four issues in reduced form, the paper appeared in its original size of
eight pages, five columns to the page. Money poured in from all quarters
for subscriptions. Offers of donations aggregating more than the total
loss were thankfully declined. The paper now steadily and rapidly grew
in prosperity and when the hard times came on its circulation was prob-
ably larger than all other similar papers combined. Without the machinery
of organization which so largely helps to sustain religious papers of the
various sects, and despite the hard times, the JOURNAL has maintained its
•
296 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
position, and the credit of the office is unsurpassed by that of any paper in
the city. On the fifteenth of March, 1877, S. S.Jones, the editor and pro-
prietor, was assassinated by an insane man under peculiarly distressing
circumstances. Predictions were freely made both by spiritualists and
non-spiritualists that the paper would now go down. Associated with the
business for many years as business manager was Colonel John C. Bundy.
This gentleman proved himself fully equal to the emergency. Out of
seeming disaster to the concern he has with consummate skill and magnifi-
cent nerve wrested a greater victory for the paper than is probably
chronicled in the history of journalism.
The RELIGIO-PHILOSOPHICAL JOURNAL is now owned and edited
by Colonel Bundy. Always independent and aggressive it has under its
later management been characterized by such a candid spirit and close ana-
lytical method of investigating what is claimed as spiritual phenomena,
that it now stands as the highest authority, and is respected and accepted
as such not only by intelligent spiritualists, but by the non-spiritualistic
public. For three years the paper has waged unceasing warfare upon
the fraudulent and tricky mediums who have infested the movement.
To the non-sectarian, impartial, independent, critical and scientific policy
of the paper spiritualism owes a great deal.
Until about a year since the subscription price was three dollars and
fifteen cents per year; it was then reduced to two dollars and a half. The
office of publication and editorial rooms are located in the Merchants'
building, situated on the northwest corner of LaSalle and Washington
streets.
297
WILBUR F. STOREY.
Among that limited class of men who are not content to be simply with
the advance of the enterprises in which they are engaged, but who enact
the role of leaders ; who are the Columbuses of the world of effort,
Wilbur F. Storey, the editor and proprietor of THE CHICAGO TIMES,
occupies a conspicuous position. A complete analysis of his motives, and
his entire intellectual life, would be of the highest value to aspirants who
are ambitious to create, to lead public opinion; to reshape existing systems ;
and to leave mankind better, and more advanced for their having lived. Such
an examination is, in the present case, an impossibility; the most that can
be done is to give an outline of his life and labors, and leave inferences to
those who have the leisure and the inclination to construct them.
Mr. Storey was born December ipth, 1819, at Salisbury, Vermont. He
is a descendant of the -Storey family, the principal of whom has made his
name immortal by his contributions to the judicial literature not merely of
this country, but of the entire world. Although the editor of THE CHICAGO
TIMES has never given prolonged attention to the study of law, he, never-
theless, through heredity, possesses a fine judicial sense, which is in-
cessantly brought into exhibition in the administration of the extended
and complicated enterprise of which he is the head and the director.
During his boyhood, Mr. Storey attended the common school, and
it was there that began and ended all the rudimentary education which he
has ever received. At the age of twelve years he entered the office of
the Middlebury FREE PRESS, in order to learn the trade of a printer.
This step was a most wise one, as has again and again been proved in the
course of his journalistic career, for it gave him a knowledge of the very
foundation of his profession; and has enabled him to conceive and to give
shape to radical improvements in the typography of his newspaper, which,
in many respects, have become the rule with many of the leading journals
of the country.
In 1836 he went to New York city, and for one and a half years
was a compositor on THE JOURNAL OF COMMERCE, then edited by Gerard
Hallock. People who knew him at this period of his life say that he
was mainly remarkable for his close attention to his "case," his accuracy
and rapidity as a compositor, and for a very marked reticence and self-
reliance. After having worked at the "case" for about two years, he
aspired to become a journalist, and removed to LaPorte, Indiana, where
298 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
he started a paper, called THE LAPORTE DEMOCRAT, and which was pub-
lished in the interests of the democracy ; and subsequently he published a
paper in Mishawauka, Indiana, of the same persuasion.
In 1841 he removed to Jackson, Michigan, where he published THE
PATRIOT; and, at the same time was postmaster, and the proprietor of a
drugstore. He was elected a member of the constitutional convention
which met at Lansing in 1850, and at which was framed the excellent
organic law which that State now enjoys. In 1854 there was afforded an
opportunity for him to secure an interest in THE FREE PRESS, of Detroit^
a democratic daily, and which was then in a moribund condition. He
obtained a controlling interest in it, which he held until his removal to
Chicago, in 1861. Under his management THE FREE PRESS rapidly rose
to be the leading journal west of New York, which improvement was
wholly due to the genius of, and personal attention bestowed upon it by
the new proprietor. He gave every part of it his personal supervision;
and was so incessant in his labor that, in a majority of instances, after
watching the paper going to press, he would, after a sleep of three or four
hours, begin the work of the next day. Such assiduity> backed by a bound-
less ambition, and excellent judgment, could have but one result, that of
success; and this he attained to an extraordinary extent.
It was only that Detroit offered too-narrow a field for his enterprise
wnich led him to think of changing his location. Chicago seemed the
point which gave promise of an unlimited expansion ; and, in consequence,
in April, 1 86 1, having purchased THE TIMES for thirty thousand dollars,
he removed to this city.
Having become possessed of THE TIMES, and feeling assured that
he was now in a field sufficiently expanded to meet his ambition, Mr.
Storey at once began to lay the foundation of the colossal enterprise of
which he is now the possessor and manager. For many years he was the
hardest worker in THE TIMES establishment, giving his personal atten-
tion to every detail, whether in the mechanical or literary departments.
The history of THE TIMES from his control of it to the present day is sub-
stantially the history of Mr. Storey himself with reference to his ambition,
his management, his executive ability, and his boundless enterprise.
From a sheet printed on a press with a single cylinder, and which was
a dead loss to its multifarious proprietors before it came into the possession
of Mr. Storey, it has now six double presses which throw off .ind fold the
printed sheet at the rate of one hundred thousand an hour; which has every
appliance that. can be afforded by steam, electricity, compressed air and the
like, and which is second to no other journal in the world in the complete-
ness of its mechanical agencies, and its organization for the collection and
the distribution of news.
In personal appearance Mr. Storey is a very marked man. He is six
feet in height, erect, with a figure which yet shows the elegant outlines
characteristic of his early and middle life. His head is a grand one, and is
covered by a mass of white hair which, added to his white flowing beard,.
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 299
gives him a dignity like that which one associates with the patriarchs of
the senate in Rome's palmiest days. His features are strong without being
harsh; his eyes are large, dark-brown, and full of a light which is at once
brilliant, and yet kindly, with a suggestion of melancholy. In his ordinary
intercourse, Mr. Storey is rather reserved, although fluent in utterance
when he is once fully possessed by his theme. He is rapid in his decisions,
and is not so obstinate as to be unwilling to reverse a conclusion when con-
vinced that such a course is the right one. As a writer, he is not a rapid
one; but he possesses in a remarkable degree the power of concentrating
his ideas — of giving to every word of his manuscript a marvelous fullness
and intensity of meaning. For many years it was his pen that gave
character to THE TIMES and secured for it a reputation for vigor, earnest-
ness, originality of thought .and expression, in which there are few equals,
and no superiors.
In his private life, Mr. Storey is genial and affable in the highest
degree. As a host who knows how to manage a conversation, to place
each at his ease ; who has a most exquisite taste for, and knowledge of, the
secrets of the cuisine as well as of all the other details connected with artistic
dining, he occupies an unrivaled position. His tastes are of the highest order ;
and he surrounds himself with a profusion of bric-a-brac rarities, pictures,
statuary, and such other things as gratify the eye, and harmonize with
an elevated dilettantetism. He is possessed of a wonderful vitality, and
has, in the natural course of events, many years in which to gratify his
tastes, and to enjoy the princely fortune which he has accumulated.
300
WILLIAM BROSS.
William Bross, Ex-Lieutenant-Governor of the State of Illinois, is
so closely identified with the history of Chicago, that any work upon the
rise and progress of the great Western metropolis, would be conspicuously
imperfect without a sketch of his life. Chicago owes its greatness and
fame to the enterprise, industry and principle which have crystalized to
make such symmetrical and robust characters as are represented by that
of the subject of this sketch — characters that are firm in the midst of per-
sonal or public adversity, and well balanced in the midst of personal or
public prosperity. Among this class of our citizenship Mr. Bross has
long occupied an exalted and universally recognized position; and because
of such position his name has become familiar not only in this city and
State but throughout the country.
William Bross is the eldest son of Deacon Moses Bross and Jane
Winfield, and was born in Sussex county, New Jersey, November 4th,
1813. The house in which he was born at that early date of our national
history, was an old log structure which stood upon a romantic spot which
Sontag deemed of sufficient interest for transfer upon the artist's canvas.
After the first nine years of his life — which were spent in his native
county — he accompanied his family to Milford, Pennsylvania, where he
remained until he obtained his majority. His parents possessed the
remarkable force of character which has always distinguished our subject,
and were alert to take advantage of every opportunity to improve their
own fortunes or to advance the prosperity of society. In their new home
in Pennsylvania, therefore, Deacon Bross early sought not only the
chances for personal benefit, but looked closely to public interests; and in
accordance with this latter view of duty, was very influential in organ-
izing, in 1825, the Presbyterian church in Milford, the church of which
he had long been a member, and even a Deacon before the recollection
of our subject.
When the construction of the Delaware and Hudson Canal was
begun, the enterprise of Deacon Bross at once suggested an opening for
personal advantage, and acting upon his judgment, he entered upon the
lumbering business near Shohola, in Pike county, Pennsylvania, and
furnished the timber for the locks and bottoms for a good portion of the
canal. In these lumbering operations our subject was a companion of
his father, and indeed labored with the ax in the woods for many months.
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 301
To these primitive times, and to the benefit he derived from such experi-
ence, he attributes much of his success in life. It developed him physically
and thus laid the foundation for a mental strain which long since would
have wrecked a weaker physical organization.
In 1832 he entered Milford Academy, under the Principalship of
Reverend Edward Allen; and two years later began a collegiate course
of study at Williams College, graduating with honor from this institution
in 1838. Leaving college under an indebtedness of six hundred dollars,
which he had incurred for educational purposes, his first object of life was
to discharge this obligation, and his first earnings were appropriated to
this end. The pathway of the young man was neither smooth nor flowery,
but with that unflinching courage and unconquerable determination which
have been the prominent features of his long and busy life, he surmounted
every difficulty and became an acknowledged victor. A quarter of a cen-
tury after stepping from college into active life, he had reached the summit
of distinction, and was one of the most conspicuous stars in the brilliant
galaxy which shed such luster upon the name of Old Williams. In 1866
the graduate of twenty-eight years before, delivered the address before
the distinguished Alumni of the college.
For several years Mr. Bross devoted himself to the duties of a teacher,
becoming the principal of Ridgebury Academy, near his birthplace, in
1838, and afterward teaching at Chester for five years. Being a thorough
classical student, a diligent student of the Natural Sciences and of Natural
History, his career as a teacher was marked by eminent success, and many
of his pupils, who have since attained prominence, can attribute their
success very largely to the early training which they received under Mr.
Bross.
Besides his other educational attainments he was very proficient in
historical research, and a constant student of history, especially American
history. This prompted a desire for a more intimate acquaintance with
the American continent, and in October, 1846, he started upon a Western
tour, visiting Chicago, St. Louis and other Western cities. Chicago,
although then of apparently little importance, had its future correctly esti-
mated by his superior judgment, and he decided to make it his home.
Returning East, he settled up his business matters, and returned to the
then literal Garden City, arriving here on the twelfth of May, 1848, and
at once opening in this city the bookselling house of Griggs, Bross &
Company, the firm being composed of S. C. Griggs, William Bross, and
the house of Newman & Company, of New York. The great book
house of Jansen, McClurg & Company is the outgrowth or rather the
development of the original enterprise. E. L. Jansen, the youngest
brother of Mrs. Bross, has been for many years the leading member of
this firm.
In the Autumn of 1849, Mr. Bross, in connection with Reverend Dr.
J. A. Wight, now of Bay City, Michigan, commenced the publication of
the PRAIRIE HERALD. After publishing this journal for some two years,
302 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
with only moderate success, he and John L. Scripps began the publication
of the DEMOCRATIC PRESS, the first number of which was issued Septem-
ber i6th, 1852, with a list of about one hundred subscribers to the daily
and two hundred and fifty to the weekly. Messrs. Scripps & Bross
determined to make the PRESS a good commercial and statistical paper to
the end that the world might be impressed with the present and inevitable
future importance of Chicago and the West. Feeling that all that was
necessary to make the conclusion that the city and great section of country
must become what they have since become, irresistible, was to spread the
facts before the public, Mr. Bross bent himself to the study of the resources
of the region, and then carefully prepared and published a description
of them in his paper, with a result that was most beneficial to the city
and section.
The PRESS, however, was something more than a commercial journal.
As its name would indicate, it was also political in character, being con-
servatively Democratic, and was especially opposed to what was then
considered intense abolition doctrines, as advocated by John Wentworth.
When Mr. Douglas introduced his bill to repeal the Missouri Compromise,
he was ably opposed by the new paper, which probably operated more
powerfully against him in the discussion of the Nebraska question than
any other influence that was brought to bear. But the PRESS did not
long continue a Democratic paper. When the Republican party was
formed in the Fall of 1854, Mr. Bross at once identified himself with
it, and labored earnestly and eloquently with voice and pen to advance
its interests. On the evening of the same day on which John C. Fremont
was nominated for the presidency, Mr. Bross made his first political speech
at a ratification meeting assembled in Dearborn Park, and that was the first
endorsement of the nomination in the West. Since then he has acquired
the enviable reputation of being always ready to take the stump, where
the opposition was the strongest, in behalf of the party which he believes
is the party of liberty and progress.
But in the midst of all his multitudinous duties, then or since devolv-
ing upon him, he never forgot the best interests of Chicago. Indefatigable
in research, he was always busy seeking for facts and statistics which
would attract public attention to the empire city of the West; and so
numerous and important were the results of his search, that they were
not only embodied in newspaper articles, but were also published in
pamphlet form. The first of these pamphlets was issued in 1854, and
contained a full description of the railroad system which had been pro-
jected, and also a comprehensive history of the city from its origin to that
time, together with a review of its trade and commerce for the year.
This pamphlet was widely read both in the East and in Europe, and the
series of annual summaries by Mr. Bross, which followed this pamphlet,
have been the means of inducing thousands upon thousands to seek a perma-
nent home in Chicago. The pamphlet published in 1854, contains man'y
facts which can be had nowhere else, as the records from which they were
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 303
gathered were burned in the great fire of 1871; and in this connection
the editor of this volume would say that he is indebted to the writings
of Governor Bross for nearly all the facts which the work contains, and
not otherwise credited.
In his enthusiastic admiration of Chicago, his predictions as to her
future, and indeed the description of her resources, were often regarded
as closely bordering upon the unreasonable, but subsequent history has
more than verified all that he said, and established for him the reputation
of being a man of penetrating foresight and exceptionally sound judg-
ment. Perhaps a more truthful picture of his ability and character could
not be given than that embodied in the following, written by one who
knew him intimately: "His commercial and railway articles, though often
appearing to border on the fabulous, have been more than verified by the
facts and figures gathered by the sober, careful statistician. He is, in fact,
one of the best statisticians in the West; and this, together with extensive
travel and careful personal observation, enabled him the better to foresee
that wonderful progress destined to be so fully realized."
In the Winter of 1854-5, Mr. Bross became impressed with the
feasibility and desirability of constructing the Georgian Bay Canal. Not-
withstanding the obstacles which naturally presented themselves, he went
to work, with his usual energy, to gather information, and finally wrote
a comprehensive article upon the subject, which was widely distributed
in Canada, and in fact resulted in creating such a favorable opinion, that
a convention was called, and held in Toronto in September, 1855, *° take
action upon the matter. The feasibility of the proposed route was fully
demonstrated by the subsequent survey, which was an outcome of this
convention. Mr. Bross furnished much of the statistical matter which
appeared in the report of the surveyors, and collected the funds necessary
to pay for its publication.
In the year 1855 he was elected a member of the Common Council of
the city of Chicago, and served in that capacity for two years, faithfully
performing the duties of chairman of the Committee on Schools.
On the first of July, 1858, the DEMOCRATIC PRESS and the TRIBUNE
were consolidated — the date given in the previous chapter being an error —
under the name of the PRESS AND TRIBUNE, the proprietors being
Messrs. Bross, Scripps and B. W. Spears, of the PRESS, and C. H. Ray,
Joseph Medill and Alfred Cowles of the TRIBUNE. The name was sub-
sequently changed to that now so familiar to the public, the CHICAGO
DAILY TRIBUNE. Mr. Bross continued to work on the consolidated
paper, and his commercial and statistical articles gave the PRESS AND
TRIBUNE then, and the TRIBUNE afterward, a value which was fully
appreciated by the public and of great benefit to the paper. So far as
Mr. Bross is spoken of in his character as a journalist, it must be under-
stood that his able associates — and his partners have always been strong
men — are also referred to. Under his and their management the TRIBUNE
has become one of the best and most influential newspapers in the cotiu-
304 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
try, and the corporation which runs it is rich and powerful. In the days
1 of beginning the TRIBUNE was printed on an old Adams power press —
the first ever brought to Chicago — which was driven by an old blind and
black Canadian pony. Now the paper is printed upon three perfecting
presses capable of printing complete fifteen thousand to twenty thousand
per hour.
The TRIBUNE was among the earliest supporters of Abraham Lincoln,
publishing in full the celebrated debates between him and Stephen A.
Douglas, in the memorable contest for the Illinois senatorship, and after-
ward favored Mr. Lincoln's nomination for the presidency, being in fact
the very first paper that suggested his name in connection with that high
office. After Mr. Lincoln's nomination the TRIBUNE did its utmost for
the success of the ticket, and Mr. Bross and his associates bent all their
energies of voice and pen, night and day, to aid the cause. When the attack
upon Fort Sumter clearly demonstrated that the threats so freely uttered
by the South, during and after the campaign, were not entirely idle, the
patriotism of our subject glowed with the intensest brightness, and he
entered upon the work of opposing secession with all his great ability.
The TRIBUNE advocated a war which should be "short, sharp and
decisive," waged upon the patriotic platform of "liberty and union." It
advocated the liberation of the slave, as a legitimate result of the war,
and urged it, even while Mr. Lincoln was hesitating as to the feasibility
of issuing the emancipation proclamation. During the entire war Mr.
Bross was not only a patriotic writer and speaker for the Union, but he
was active and sacrificing wherever action or sacrifice was required for
the advancement of his country's cause. The discovery of a rebel plot
to burn Camp Douglas and sack the city of Chicago, in November, 1864,
was in no small degree attributable to him. He was also the leading
spirit in raising the Twenty-ninth United States Regiment of Colored
Volunteers, in Illinois and adjoining States, paying nearly all the expenses
incurred in its organization. That regiment was under the command of
his brother, Colonel John A. Bross, who was killed July 3Oth, 1864,
while bravely leading his command, at Petersburg, Virginia. As would
naturally be expected the people of Illinois appreciated the sterling worth
of such a man, and recognizing their duty of rewarding one who had
stood so unflinchingly for the country in its hour of peril, they elected
him Lieutenant Governor of the State, in November, 1864, giving him
a majority of over thirty thousand.
In 1865, in company with Schuyler Colfax, Ex- Vice President of
the United States, and others, Mr. Bross made an overland trip to Cali-
fornia. The trip was full of interest and profit to the tourists, and was
made by them, especially by Mr. Bross, full of interest and profit not
only to the people whom they met, but afterward to the world. To the
people through whose places of habitation he passed, he spoke words of
encouragement, which they will never forget, and before boards of com-
merce, legislatures, literary and scientific associations, he afterward unrolled
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 305
the comparatively unknown Western country, with its vast resources, in
eloquent words, and as if he were holding before his delighted audiences
a rapidly moving panorama.
In 1867 he spent six months in Europe, with his daughter, visiting
Liverpool, Dublin, Belfast, Glasgow', Edinburgh, London, Calais, Paris,
Brussels, Berlin, Munich, Vienna, Rome, Florence, Naples, Genoa, Her-
culaneum, Pompeii and other places of interest, writing a brilliant series
of letters for the TRIBUNE, in which he graphically sketched the scenes
presented and the impressions which he received, and which like all his
other writings, commanded wide attention.
Mr. Bross was married in 1839 to the only daughter of the late Dr.
John T. Jansen, of Goshen, New York, a lady of most estimable qualities
of character, who still lives to enjoy the triumphs of her husband's career.
Eight children, four sons and four daughters, blessed this union, but all
except Mrs. H. D. Lloyd, a lady of rare grace and intellectual attain-
ments, slumber in Rose Hill cemetery, in the shadow of a beautiful family
monument.
Although still a part owner of the TRIBUNE, and the president of
the company, Mr. Bross has not for the last four or five years been
actively engaged in editorial work, but writes for any department of the
paper whenever the spirit moves, and is the author of occasional valuable
articles for the Historical Society and the Academy of Sciences. He
also does some speaking on public occasions, being always listened to
with both interest and profit. The Early History of Chicago, which
was published in 1876, contains facts which are to be found nowhere else,
and it has been fondly hoped that he would add to it from the data which
he has in his possession, thus forming one of the most comprehensive and
reliable histories that possibly could be written of Chicago; but it is
doubtful if he will do it.
The ruling passion of Mr. Bross' life has been to develop Chicago,
the West and indeed the whole country. Whenever he has written he
seems to have had this object distinctively in view. Whenever he has
traveled the good of the American people has been uppermost in his mind.
This was illustrated by the interest which he took in 1879 in the cultiva-
tion of rice corn, the merits of which his keen perception readily detected,
and his pen made known its merits far and wide through the TRIBUNE.
He may really be said to be the father of rice corn cultivation, which
now finds such general favor in Kansas. Few men, in fact, have done
so much that is valuable to society as he has done, and much that he has
accomplished has been done so quietly that he is recognized as the author
only by his most intimate friends.
Personally Ex-Lieutenant Governor Bross is a man of marked and
commanding appearance. His robust frame, open countenance, high
forehead and sharp gray eyes, indicate a person of extraordinary energy,
clear intellect, superior judgment, unusual foresight and unswerving
honesty. In his intercourse with men he is frank and courteous, always
306 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
ready to do what may lie in his power to add to the happiness and welfare
of others, and he is especially kindly disposed toward worthy young men
struggling for a position. Indeed one of the finest traits of his character
is his kindness of heart, which never fails of exhibition when it is merited.
Socially he is the most congenial of men, winning the love of all who
may be favored with his friendship or acquaintance. As an employer,
his affability has always won the almost filial regard of those under him.
Two events in the life of Governor Bross are so especially note-
worthy that this sketch should not close without containing a mention
of them. The amendment to the constitution, submitted by Congress to
the States abolishing slavery in the United States, was passed January
3 ist, 1865. The resolution for its adoption was passed the next day by
the Illinois legislature, and hence his name as presiding officer of the
Senate with that of the Speaker of the House stands first among all
the States to that immortal document. All the infamous black laws of
Illinois were repealed during the session of 1865, and his name was gladly
affixed to them as the representative of a free people.
In 1868 he visited the Rocky Mountains with Vice President Colfax.
During the trip he ascended Mount Lincoln with a party of miners, and
in his honor they named the mountain in the same range only a mile or
two from it, after their companion. Only a deep gorge partly separates
them. Mount Lincoln is fourteen thousand two hundred and ninety-
seven feet high; Mount Bross is fourteen thousand one hundred and
eighty-five. The Dolly Varden and the Moose mines, two of the best
known and most valuable properties in Colorado, are on Mount Bross.
That his name should be thus intimately associated with that of Lincoln,
among the highest mountain peaks upon the continent, is an honor which
any man might covet.
Mi% Bross is now in the sixty-eighth year of his age, but active as are
many men at fifty. Whatever may be his future, his achievements have
already placed his name in a high and permanent position in the American
nation. As an able and convincing writer, as an orator, who has spoken
upon a wide range of subjects, and whose voice has often been heard
upon the same platform with Lincoln, Lovejoy, Logan, Oglesby, Yates,
Colfax, Washburn and other leading men of the West, as Lieutenant
Governor and the efficient President of the State Senate, as a public
spirited and patriotic citizen, and as a man who has faithfully discharged
the various duties in private as well as public life, Ex-Lieutenant Governor
William Bross has achieved a fame which the years will not tarnish.
Uui
3°7
WASHINGTON HESING.
Of the young men who have made themselves felt in Chicago, and for
\vhom the community has pictured a brilliant future, none have achieved
more substantial success, or give better promise, than Washington Hesing.
Possessed of a natural force of charactei", and a genius which fits him to
encounter and triumph over obstacles; with an evenly balanced and actively
logical mind, which he inherits from his German origin, and which has
been finely trained in the best educational institutions of America and
under the instruction of the ablest professors in Berlin and Heidelberg;
imbued with a lofty admiration and thorough understanding of the princi-
ples of popular government, and with an ardent love for justice and liberty,
he must be regarded, in the light which the present reveals, as being des-
tined to make a marked impi'ess not only upon the history and character
of his adopted city, but also upon those of his country. In looking about
them for worthy successors, when they shall have unladen the burden of
responsibility, the old patriots, who have reared or strengthened the pillars
of our grand Republic, are content when they find our maturing young
men possessed of such qualifications as are here rightly attributed to the
subject of this sketch. While only thirty-one years of age — having been
born May i4th, 1849 — he has taken an active part in politics for nearly
ten years,. beginning when only twenty-three, and then distinguishing
himself by a series of eloquent speeches, in both the English and German
languages, in favor of the election of General U. S. Grant to the Presi-
dency. Of decided convictions, and unflinching of purpose in whatever he
undertakes, his uncompromising advocacy of the principles of his party
during that campaign and since, has naturally made him enemies; but,
probably, he has no enemy who would do himself the injustice of denying
Mr. Hesing the possession of sterling character, of devotion to principle,
and of a familiarity with political economy and the science of government
of which a much older man might well feel proud.
Anthony C. Hesing, the father of 'our subject, came from Germany to
this country in 1839, and the mother, Louise Lamping, also of German
nativity, came in 1847. •^•r> and' Mrs. Hesing were residing at Cincin-
nati, Ohio, when Washington was born, but removed six years later to
this city, where they resided for one year, and then sought a residence in
Highland Park, Illinois, remaining there until 1857, when they returned
to Chicago. The son was almost constantly in school from the time the
308 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
family arrived in Chicago, until the Spring of i86i,when he accompanied
his mother to Europe, and returned with her in the Winter. Upon his
return he entered what was then called the University St. Mary's of the
Lake, a Catholic institution of learning, presided over at the time by the
Rev. Dr. McMullen, the present Vicar General of the Diocese of Chicago-
After remaining at this university until July, 1863, he attended one term
at the Chicago University, after which he was prepared by Dr. Quacken-
boss for admission to Yale College, which institution he entered Sep.
tember, 1866, and from which he graduated with the degree of Bachelor
of Arts in 1870.
Immediately upon graduating he visited Europe for the purpose of
studying political economy, international law, the science of government,
history and German literature, and was thus engaged when Chicago's
great calamity of 1871 fell upon the city, which served as a summons to him
to return. Upon reaching his home he at once entered upon an active
business life, in assuming, on the twenty-first of November, the manage-
ment of the ILLINOIS STAATS ZEITUNG establishment, and was satisfac-
torily prosperous until the financial panic of 1873 burst upon the country,
and seriously involved Mr. Hesing's father, to whose rescue, like a brave
man and son, he pledged his all. The undertaking, however, was too great
under the exceedingly adverse circumstances, and five years later Mr.
Hesing was compelled to part with his interest in the STAATS ZEITUNG
Company. But undismayed, he set himself to the task of recovering his
losses, and in April, 1880, signalized his triumph over adversity by secur-
ing, in connection with his father, a controlling interest in the STAATS
ZEITUNG, which is now under the successful management of father and son.
Mr. Hesing's life has thus been a very active one, and up to the time
of his entering upon his business career, the activity was peculiarly German,
consisting in the arduous conformity with that nation's belief that thorough
education is imperative. The city of Chicago recognized the success of
such a theory, and signally honored a young man who had reduced it to
practice in America, by appointing Mr. Hesing, when only twenty-two
years of age, a member of the Board of Education. At the expiration of
his term of office Joseph Medill, then Mayor of the city, tendered him a
reappointment, which was declined. While a member of the Board Mr.
Hesing, as one of the Committee on German, made a report in which he
advocated the system of grading the German instruction, as the English
was graded, and his proposed system was adopted and is now in practice.
In August, 1880, Mr. Hesing's fine qualifications as a supervisor of public
instruction were still further acknowledged through his election as a mem-
ber of the County Board of Education.
Mr. Hesing is a member of the Roman Catholic Church and attends
the Cathedral of the Holy Name. His prominence in his church will be
indicated by the fact that in 1873 he was elected President of the Union
Catholic Library Association of Chicago, which is an organization em-
bracing all the Catholics of the city. As in other relations of life, his duties
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 3P9
in this are methodical and exemplary, and the church finds in him the firm
supporter of principle within it, that society generally has learned to
regard him in any cause which he espouses.
Scarcely anything remains to be said to complete the outlines of
Washington Hesing's life, except to note his marriage in July, 1870, with
Henrietta C. Weir, an accomplished young lady of Boston, Massachusetts.
While not so regarded by himself, his career has really been one of signal
brilliancy, and has entitled him, his friends — who have already mentioned
his name in connection with Congress — believe, to an early promotion to
the councils of the nation, where his natural abilities and attainments can
find full scope for exercise. To whatever sphere of duty he may be called
Mr. Hesing is abundantly fitted to reflect honor upon it, his country and
himself.
110
JOHN C. BUNDY.
The subject of this sketch, Colonel John C. Bundy, editor and
proprietor of the RELIGIO-PHILOSOPHICAL JOURNAL, was born at St.
Charles, Kane county, Illinois, February i6th, 1841. His parents were
Asahel and Betsey Bundy. Until fourteen years of age he remained at
home. His father's farm being located within the precincts of a country
village, he enjoyed the advantages of both city and country life without
their disadvantages. He was then sent to Boston, where he could enjoy
better educational facilities, but the climate affected his health so seriously
that he was obliged to return home. In 1857 ^ie attended the Phillips
Academv, Andover, Massachusetts, to prepare for college, and after two
years' study was obliged to return on account of failing health, and as
events proved, this ended his school days.
His advent was made in a new and unsettled country, and although
shielded from actual want he was obliged to suffer the deprivations which
fall to the lot of all pioneers, and especially his delicate constitution was
susceptible to climatic and malarial influences, and robust health was not
his until long after he had reached manhood.
In 1860 he began business life as clerk in the dry goods store of Minard
& Osgood, at St. Charles, and even thus early manifested the acumen and
energy which have always characterized his life. He had no special love
for the business, yet he made a study of the influence of mind over mind,
in the psychological effect he could produce on his customers, and sought
to exceed the other clerks in the amount of his sales. The cannon of
Sumter awoke him from his peaceful dreams. The boy of twenty, fired
with patriotism, immediately joined a military company, and although the
musket was heavy, and his tender feet soon blistered, he drilled with
the same zeal and energy he had evinced in the sale of goods. He began
actively recruiting men for the service, and before getting into an organi-
zation finally accepted, he had sent forward several hundred.
On August ^th, 1861, he was sworn into service at Geneva, Illinois,
as private in the Kane county, cavalry company, which was made up
from recruits gathered from within a radius of twenty miles of Geneva.
C. B. Dodson of that place was elected captain, W. C. Wilder first and
John C. Bundy second lieutenant. The company was first moved to
Jefferson Barracks below St. Louis, then in charge of General S. R.
Curtis, of Iowa, and shortly after was taken as the escort of that officer,
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 311
moving with him to Benton Barracks in the suburbs of St. Louis.
General Curtis, although a West Pointer, here overstepped the army
regulations, which required mustering officers to be graduates of West
Point or regular army officers, and detailed Lieutenant Bundy to that
responsible position. Though only a green country boy, without the
slightest military knowledge or preparation, his indomitable energy over-
came all difficulties. By studying nights the cavalry tactics, he became
so well informed that he gave effectual aid in drilling his old company.
With the first lieutenant he sat late at night, with a dummy squadron of
blocks of wood, and so thoroughly mastered the lesson that they were
able to drill the men in it next day.
As mustering officer he came in contact with a host of officers fresh
from Congress, the courts and other high places, and they not knowing
his record, and seeing his extreme youth, took it for granted that he was
a West Point graduate, and plied him with all sorts of work and confi-
dently looked to him as authority on subjects of which he had no previous
knowledge, but his aptitude, quick intuition and energy always availed
him. At his request he was relieved, in order to return to his company.
He was on the staff of Major General S. R. Curtis in the memorable
march through Arkansas, which is said by those who afterward took
part in all the leading campaigns to have been unsurpassed in hardships,
though little fighting was done. During this campaign he was promoted
to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel of the First Arkansas Infantry. Con-
stantly assigned to difficult positions, and never sparing himself, he at
last was obliged to accept a leave of absence, on account of impaired
health, and returned to St. Charles, where he rapidly recovered.
August ixjth, 1862, he married Mary E., daughter of Stevens S. and
Lavinia M. Jones, of St. Charles. Two weeks thereafter found him
again in the field, and with the most brilliant prospects before him, his
health again gave way, and in 1863 he was obliged to retire from service.
The following extract from a letter given him before he became fully
convinced that he could not endure further service, speaks for itself. It
was never presented to the President:
STATE OF ILLINOIS, EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT,
SPRINGFIELD, FEBRUARY nth, 1863.
His EXCELLENCY, ABRAHAM LINCOLN, PRESIDENT, ETC.:
* * * Colonel Bundy is desirous of accepting another position in gov-
ernment service, and I take great pleasure in recomir.ending him for any position at
your disposal. He is the bearer of credentials of a very high character, vouching for
his integrity and ability. He served with distinction in the Department of the Missouri,
and is highly spoken of by Major General Curtis. Any favor granted Colonel Bundy
will be worthily bestowed. Very respectfully your obedient servant,
RICHARD YATES, Governor.
For several years after leaving the army his health was too precarious
to allow of much active work. He farmed a little, and studied law, for
which he has a remarkable aptitude. He came to Chicago in 1866, and
became identified with the RELIGIO-PHILOSOPHICAL Publishing House,
312 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
of which his father-in-law, Mr. Jones, was president, and afterward pro-
prietor.
To establish a great journal for the promulgation of free thought,
liberal ideas, the advancement of science, in the light of spiritualism, had
been the dream of Mr. Jones' life, and to it he had given all his indom-
itable energies. Mr. Bundy, of all others, was the man best fitted to aid
the enterprise. He assumed the business management of the RELIGIO--
PHILOSOPHICAL JOURNAL and the Publishing House, and success was at
once assured by the immense increase of business. At the time of the
great fire the most enviable success had been gained, when the entire
establishment was struck out of existence. Yet with a determination
which knew no defeat, although not a vestige of the type or office mate-
rial remained, not an issue was missed, and among the first enterprises
to regain full vitality, after the disaster, was the JOURNAL.
On the death of Mr. Jones, March I5th, 1877, Colonel Bundy, as
administrator of the estate, took entire control of the paper and Publish-
ing House, and has since, by purchase, become sole proprietor. On taking
control as editor he inaugurated a new policy in the conduct of the
JOURNAL. Other leading reform papers had by over valuing the desira-
bility of peace allowed unbounded latitude to opinions, and even remained
silent in the presence of frauds and deceptions the most degrading.
Spiritualism had no organ to defend it against the charges of com-
munism, fraud and vagaries. Colonel Bundy, with what many of his
staunch friends regarded as a reckless haste, at once began an uncom-
promising war against all these, and boldly declared for a reform,
a liberalism and a Spiritualism free from every taint of immorality and
fraud. He said if these great issues could not bear the full light and boldest
discussion, they were not worth advocating. In support of this line of
policy he threw his fortune and his life, determined to win on that line
or not at all. He is a man who never looks back, never turns, and his
honesty and integrity are so exacting they admit of no short-comings in
others.
The RELIGIO-PHILOSOPHICAL JOURNAL had in previous years alone
stayed the tide of Woodhull fanaticism which at one time nearly swept
away liberal journalism, and later, under Colonel Bundy's management,
presented an invincible wall to the tide of Bennettism which broke in
twain and destroyed the influence of the Liberal League, and showed
the infamy of those who opposed the attempt of the government to
repress the distribution of vile literature, and the debauchery of the
morals of youth. It then turned its attention to the wise and thoughtful
consideration of the great problems of spiritual science and philosophy and
rational interpretation of the diverse phenomena therewith connected.
Fraud and rascality had been so mingled with the true, that it was diffi-
cult to discriminate, and the cause was suffering defeat by the unjust
prejudice thus created. This policy of the JOURNAL was certain to bring
the most bitter opposition from the fraudulent "mediums," pretenders
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 313
and quacks, as to them this policy was certain death, and the credulous
who accepted their "phenomena," joined with them in the cry of "perse-
cution." A great many so called "liberals" opposed, because they wanted
"freedom," confounding it with license. When the history of the great
liberal movement is written, the course of the JOURNAL will be written
down as a most important factor. What is the more notable is the sup-
port given it by its widely diverse constituency, who have encouraged
the wise effort to make the word Spiritualism synonymous with the
highest and purest morality and the profoundest insight into the laws of
the world.
The RELIGIO-PHILOSOPHICAL JOURNAL has a large and rapidly
increasing subscription list, being sent into every State in the Union, and
nearly every civilized country on the globe. It is regarded as authority
in its domain not only at home but in Europe, India and Australia. In
Colonel Bundy's hands it has become a great power in the field of reform
in the broadest sense of that word.
Colonel Bundy's conjugal relations are the happiest. Mrs. Bundy
has for several years held a position in the Publishing House, the responsi-
bilities of which she has borne because so important she could not give
them into the hands of another. One cloud only has darkened their sky:
the death of their son, George M. S., born in 1863, who was killed by
being struck with a base ball while watching a couple of boys playing
in the street. Their daughter, Gertrude, now twelve years of age, is
a remarkably precocious and sweet child.
The most encouraging prospects are before the great enterprise of
Colonel Bundy, who has proven that honesty of purpose will always
win in the end, and that the world honors those who loyally maintain
their ideas of justice and right regardless of petty policy. There is no
question of human rights, philosophy or reform, of spiritual or material
science, ignored by the RELIGIO-PHILOSOPHICAL JOURNAL. Colonel
Bundy has still a long life before him, for he has not yet reached the
meridian.
H. L. GOODALL.
In his present field of journalism Harvey L. Goodall, the subject of this
necessarily limited sketch, occupies a position in the very forefront of the
most widely known, enterprising and successful. He was born in Vermont,,
within sight of the snow-capped heights of the White Mountains, and is
a lineal descendant of the heroic Mrs. Dustan, with the details of whose
capture by the Indians and escape in a birch canoe after having slaughtered
her captors, all readers of pioneer history are thoroughly familiar. Raised
upon a farm until he was sixteen years of age, he enjoyed, as most farmers*
boys of that era did, the educational facilities of his neighborhood only;,
but making the best possible use of these, and reading with much eager-
ness all the books he could buy or borrow, he soon became noted for his
extreme studiousness, and won what, in that day was held to be quite
a distinction: the honor of being recognized as the "champion orthogra-
phist" or best speller of all that portion of the Green Mountain State. But
believing that there was a great world beyond the ranges of hills and
mountains that hemmed in his home, and agreeing with the now lamented
Douglas that Vermont held a front place among the best States to emigrate
from, he bundled up his scanty supply of "dry goods," and with the pack
upon his shoulder, and his fowling piece in his hand, he started out to do-
battle with the realities of life, and to work out as he might, his own
individual destiny.
It would be interesting to know how, after reaching the Maine sea-
shore, he became a boy sailor, and subsequently "tramped it," without
money or friends, in foreign lands, often suffering from hunger and
exposure; how his needs compelled him to travel the streets of London,
"weather-boarded" with advertising bill boards, front and rear, for a shil-
ling a day and "finding himself;" and how, finally, despairing of ever
becoming a second Lord Mayor Whittington through such trying ordeals,
he actually conceived the idea — penniless as he was — of returning to the
United States on foot, by crossing over to France and thence footing it
across Europe into Asia, through Siberia to Behring's Straits, and thence
down through Alaska and the British Possessions to Oregon; how this
great journey was mapped out and fully determined upon, would, in
connection with the varied experiences of that interval of his life, form
a deeply interesting chapter. That he did not undertake the exhausting
and perilous journey, is due to the fortunate happening that, moved by
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 315
a desire to see once more the American flag, he sauntered down to the
Victoria docks, where, meeting an American sailor, he was persuaded by
him to go to sea again. Accordingly he shortly afterward shipped on the
Boston Belle, and after several voyages, full of adventure, he returned to
his native land, clad in Chinese habiliments, artistically tattooed, some-
what wiser, but none the wealthier for his trying experiences in the Old
World.
Again at home, he readily adapted himself to the seeming necessities
of the situations in which he was placed. He entered a cotton mill, and
bringing his powers of concentration and application to his aid, he soon
learned the cotton manufacturing business in all its details, thoroughly
and practically, speedily rising to the position of overseer, and inventing
a new "stop-motion" that all subsequent inventions have failed to drive
into disuse. His experience as a merchant and tradesman is narrowed
down to the proprietorship of a hat and trunk store, periodical news
depot and restaurant.
He was, at this period of his life, a member of the varied orders of
the day, having a passion for joining all organizations formed or existing
in the community where he lived. He was a practical fireman, and has
pleasant recollections of his connection with a military company belong-
ing to the regiment of which Benjamin F. Butler was colonel.
Daguerreotyping was then in its infancy, and acquiring a knowledge
of the art he practiced it, and now has a lively recollection of the fact
that no man, living or dead, ever took worse pictures. He mastered the
art of phonography, taught it in several Pennsylvania colleges, and
during two sessions served as a phonographic press reporter of the pro-
ceedings of the Pennsylvania senate. Subsequently he became a reporter
for the Harrisburg DAILY TELEGRAPH, passing from that position to the
foremanshipof the State Bindery, Messrs. Fenn& Sedgwick being the State
printers and binders. At a later day he became the editor of the INLAND
DAILY, of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Mr. Theophilus Fenn being then
the editor of the INDEPENDENT WHIG, issued from the same office, and
publisher — for the owners — of both papers. The office was owned by
.1 joint stock company, of which Messrs. Theophilus Fenn, Thaddeus
Stevens and Edward McPherson were the principal stockholders,
McPherson being Mr. Fenn's predecessor as the editor and publisher of
both papers.
Mr. Goodall afterward published, in the same city, the Conestoga
CHIEF, as the organ of the Red Men. This office was soon removed to
Philadelphia, however, and the material used there in the publication of
the SUNDAY MIRROR. Disposing of the MIRROR office, Mr. Goodall
started the New York DAILY TRANSCRIPT, a paper that subsequently
became — under the management to which he sold it — the official paper of
New York city and the special organ of the "Tweed ring" that so merci-
lessly plundered the treasury and wronged the public.
With sufficient means at his command, Mr. Goodall now repaired to
316 CHICA-GO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
London, for the purpose of engaging in the novel enterprise of publishing
a daily newspaper on board the steamer Great Eastern; but this scheme
being defeated by an explosion on board, that delayed the vessel's depart-
ure several months, he accepted the treasurership of Howes & Cushing's
circus. With that mammoth establishment, that then offered such
attractions as John Robinson, the great bare back rider; Rarey, the horse
trainer; Dan Castello and his trained American Bull; Sayers and Heenan,
then at the acme of their fame as pugilists; the celebrated Jee Brothers,
etc., Mr. Goodall made the tour of Europe. Before starting, however,
Messrs. Howes & Gushing fitted up the Alhambra Palace, in Leicester
Square, London, remaining there and at the Crystal Palace, at Sydenham,
an interval of several weeks. The Howes referred to is none other than
Seth B. Howes, an extensive real estate owner, and a widely known and
much respected citizen of the city of Chicago at the present time.
Paradoxical as the remark may seem, Mr. Goodall "came West to
grow up with country" by going East; and the matter may be still further
mystified by the remark that he did not travel over any of the then
existing "trunk lines," by lake or canal, neither did he "foot it." He
came West by going East by the way of Quebec, down the St. Lawrence,
across the Atlantic to Liverpool and London, thence to the West Indies
and New Orleans, arriving at the latter 'place at the very time the State
convention was in the act of passing the secession resolutions, and when
Union men there "held their lives in their hands." For assistance that
enabled him to get safely out of that hot-bed of rebellion, he is, and
always will be, under the profoundest obligations to his good friends,
Michael Hahn, who subsequently became governor of Louisiana, and
Alfred Shaw, who became sheriff at New Orleans, under the Butler
regime. From New Orleans to Alton the trip was made on board of
a steamer that floated, most of the time, the rebel colors.
Arriving at Alton, Mr. Goodall at once enlisted in the Second
Illinois Cavalry, in which he did service for a term of over three years,
sharing in the battles of Belmont and New Madrid, and in the taking of
Island No. 10. His service also included dispatch-bearing and scout duty
in Southeast Missouri and Eastern Arkansas, at the time when those
localities were thickly infested by guerrillas and roving bands of rebel
bushwhackers and cut-throats. He ran trains over the Cairo, Ai'kansas
•and Texas railroad, under military direction during an interval of several
weeks, and the last train that was run over that road was under his
charge. Where he abandoned it, it was found by Colonel Allen — who
became the purchaser of that road — after the close of the war.
How, during his soldier service at Columbus, Kentucky, in the midst
of a great multitude of Federal soldiers, and almost within the shadows
of the forts and breastworks the rebels had just abandoned, Mr. Goodall
established and published the WAR EAGLE, the first Union newspaper
ever printed on recovered rebel soil; how he subsequently located at
Cairo, Illinois, and published there a widely circulated and influential
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 317
newspaper with daily and weekly editions — all this and much more may
not even be outlined in the narrow space here assigned to him. Suffice
it to say that in all the positions in which circumstances placed him, he
displayed the sound judgment which has always distinguished his career
since, and the same sterling integrity and uprightness of character which
have won him the esteem and confidence of the large constituency
which he and the enterprises in which he is now engaged, represent.
As we have already intimated, Mr. Goodall was the originator of
a number of newspaper enterprises — the dollar WEEKLY SUN, which he
still publishes, among the rest — but none of them so fully bore the impress
of his originality, genius and tireless industry as the DROVERS' JOURNAL,
which he established at the Union Stock Yards, in the vicinage of Chicago
now bears. Properly appreciating the live stock interests of the great West
and Northwest, for which Chicago had become the focus and distributing
point, Mr. Goodall, on the eleventh day of January, 1873, superseded
the market circulars he had been issuing for several years, with the
weekly DROVERS' JOURNAL, the first livestock market paper ever pub-
lished in the world. The scheme was an original one, but bringing his
experience in journalism, his knowledge of all the details of the publish-
ing business to the aid of his confessed editorial tact and ability, his
enterprise gave most gratifying auguries of the success it has since achieved.
It soon became a necessity to enterprising livestock men in all the stock
growing regions of the country, and was a powerful agent in the work
of making known the unequaled facilities of the Union Stock Yards for
the transaction of the business for which they were established, which is
now confessedly the largest in the world. In the month of January,
1877, the greatly increased volume of the trade, in connection with the
vastly increased production all over the country, seemed to demand
the publication of a daily edition, and in response to that demand the
DAILY DROVERS' JOURNAL made its appearance. Both the editorial
and mechanical departments of the paper passing under Mr. Goodall's
personal surveillance, the Daily soon won its way into popular favor, and
is now everywhere recognized by livestock men, whether shippers,
breeders or feeders, as an indispensable requisite to success in the prosecu-
tion of their respective callings. A semi-weekly edition followed at
once, and thus by the publication of a daily, semi-weekly and weekly
edition, was Mr. Goodall enabled to supply all possible demands of the
live stock interests of the country. But he was not satisfied to rest his
efforts at expansion even at this point. Noting the rapidly growing
cattle export and kindred interests of the country, and appreciating the
need for a staunch friend and promoter of those interests on the other
side of the Atlantic where hostile influences were constantly at work, he
determined to put in execution an idea he had conceived years before, and
that was to establish an European edition of the DROVERS' JOURNAL in
the city of Liverpool. This he did early in the year 1880, and already
the European paper has become a staunch and valuable friend abroad for
318 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
the hundreds and thousands of American citizens engaged in the live and
dead meat export business of the times. His business on both sides of
the Atlantic is now prosperous, and no other man in his department of
journalism — which is entirely original with him — is so widely known as
H. L. Goodall, of the DROVERS' JOURNAL. From the date of the
establishment of his Chicago enterprises he has had the active co-opera-
tion of his brother, Harry P. Goodall, who, having full charge of the
advertising department, prosecutes the trusts confided to him most indus-
triously, intelligently and successfully.
ANDREW SHUMAN.
Andrew Shuman, the editor of the Chicago "EVENING JOURNAL,
was born in Manor, Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, November 8th, 1830.
His father, Jacob Shuman, was a farmer in moderate circumstances. His
mother was Margaret Whistler.
When Andrew was seven years old his father died, and he was
adopted by an uncle, a retired, wealthy farmer, who treated the boy in
every respect as a member of his own family, sending him to school
much of the time and exhibiting toward him all the interest of a parent
or a tender guaixlian. When he was fourteen years of age, he left the
old country home, entering a drug store in the city of Lancaster as a clerk.
Not liking that business, which was not his own choice, but that of an
older brother, a few mqnths subsequently he abandoned the drug store
for the printing office, which suited his tastes and inclinations better.
Entering the office of the UNION AND SENTINEL, in Lancaster, as an
apprentice, in 1845, ^e J'ernained there over a year, when the proprietor
of that paper sold out and purchased the office of the DAILY ADTERTISER
at Auburn, New York, known in those and in subsequent years as
"Seward's home organ."
At his employer's urgent request, he accompanied him to Auburn,
remaining with him there for two years, during the last of which, at the
age of eighteen, he edited, published, printed and distributed, during his
leisure hours, a small weekly paper — THE AUBURNIAN. At the conclu-
sion of his printer's apprenticeship, he became associated with Thurlow
W. Brown, well known in those days as a tempei'ance writer and lecturer,
in the publication and editorship of a weekly paper at Auburn, called the
CAYUGA CHIEF. At the end of a year and a half the partnership of
Brown & Shuman was dissolved, Shuman having made up his mind to
adopt the editorial profession as his life work, and being fully impressed
with the necessity of going through a thorough course of reading, study
and general culture before he could be qualified for the peculiar duties
of that profession, at once set to work preparing himself for college.
Having carefully saved up his little earnings, he purchased all needful
books and made arrangements to enter upon a preparatory course in the
Liberal Institute at Clinton, New York, then under the Presidency of
Reverend Thomas J. Sawyer, D. D.
A year in that institution prepared him to enter the Freshman class
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
m Hamilton College, at Clinton, which he did in the Autumn of 1851.
Now commenced a struggle between poverty and ambition — between
discouragements of impecuniosity on the one hand, and the ardent thirst
for knowledge on the other. During term time he studied hard in col-
lege, and during vacation time he worked hard in the printing offices of
Auburn, Syracuse and Utica, earning and saving enough during each
vacation to pay his expenses through each succeeding term. In this way
he managed to reach his Junior year, in the meantime maintaining a high
standing in his class, and even taking some of the college "honors,"
among which may be mentioned two first prizes for essays — one in his
Freshman year, on "The Relations Between Elocution and Oratory" —
the other in his Sophomore year, on "The Comparative Advantages of
the Pulpit and the Bar as Fields of Effective Oratory."
During his Junior year, in 1853, ^e was urged by friends of William
H. Seward to take the editorial management of the Syracuse DAILY
JOURNAL, a vacancy in which having recently occurred. The place being
urged upon him, he finally, though reluctantly abandoning his college
course, determined to accept it. It was deemed "a good opening for the
young man," and so it proved. He was the editor of the Syracuse DAILY
JOURNAL nearly three years, when, quite unexpectedly, he received an
invitation from R. L. & C. L. Wilson, then proprietors of the Chicago
EVENING JOURNAL, to assume an editorial position on that paper. Hav-
ing long had his mind on the West as a desirable and advantageous field,
he promptly accepted this call, and in July, 1856, became editorially con-
nected with the EVENING JOURNAL.
In 1864, Governor Oglesby, on assuming the Executive office of
Illinois, appointed Mr. Shuman State Penitentiary Commissioner. In
lS68, this office was made elective, and Mr. Shuman, being nominated
by the Republican State Convention, was elected Penitentiary Commis-
sioner for a term of six years; but, owing to the pressure of his editorial
duties, in 1870 he resigned the office, having held it five years, and during
that time was instrumental in improving and reforming the prison system
of the State, both in its disciplinary government and its' economical
management. On the twenty-fourth of May, 1876, he was unanimously
nominated by the State Republican Convention for the office of Lieutenant
Governor, and was elected.
33I
CHAPTER XX.
RELIEF AND AID SOCIETY.
One of the finest traits of Chicago character is the cherished remem-
brance of the material sympathy which was expressed by the world in
the sad affliction of 1871. The worst feature of human character is for-
getfulness of needed favors when the necessity no longer exists. So
exceptional in the history of our race is the remembrance of assistance
beneath the clouds, after the sunshine has gladdened the soul, that those who
manifest it are regarded as above the average of mankind. The people of
Chicago, although possessing one of the finest cities in the world, and
cherishing the reasonable belief that it is to be the greatest on the conti-
nent, never forget that they were once stricken and that charity flowed in
upon them as freely as the waters of the lake roll upon the shore.
After a description of prosperity, therefore, it has been thought that
it would be emblematic of the character of our people, to insert the chapter
detailing the management of charities after the great fire of 1871. That was
a novel position for a people to be placed in. As one has already written,
"bread was to be furnished to the hungry, and raiment to the insufficiently
clad; hope needed a resurrection in the hearts of the despondent; the
bereaved needed the ministi'ies of consolation; the sick required the nurse
and the physician; the homeless were to be sheltered; the dying were to
be proffered the offices of religion, and the dead granted the last cere-
monial and service that man renders to his fellow." But, with the royal
assistance of mankind, Chicago was able, to discharge all these delicate
duties. >(S On Monday afternoon, October 9th, 1871, a meeting of the city
officials and prominent citizens was held at the First Congregational
Church. A call was issued at that meeting for the assembling of citizens
and officials at the same place on the same evening. The call meeting
convened at eight o'clock, and it appointed two from each ward to act as
a relief committee. The Mayor was subsequently added to the committee.
At a meeting of the Relief Committee, held on the next evening, it was
voted to make the First Congregational Church the headquarters of the
committee, and iL was ordered that a notice be published that when
the homeless and Destitute could not find accommodations at the churches
and school houses — which were generally open for the purpose — the com-
mittee would attend to such cases. On the twelfth of October the
distribution of supplies was committed to the hands of the Chicago Relief
and Aid Society, and the General Relief Committee ceased to exist. ^ On
322 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
the thirteenth of October the Mayor issued his proclamation constituting
the Relief and Aid Society the almoner of the world's charity. In this
proclamation the Mayor said that he deemed it best for the interests of the
city to entrust the distribution of the charities to this society, which was
an old incorporated organization, which for many years had commanded
the confidence of the public. The Mayor conferred upon the society,
partly in deference to the wishes of General Sheridan, the power to im-
press teams and labor, and procure quarters, so far as might be necessary,
for the transportation and distribution of contributions, and the care of the
sick and disabled.
The Chicago Relief and Aid Society was incorporated by an Act of
the legislature and approved February i6th, 1857. Edwin C. Lamed,
Mark Skinner, Edward I. Tinkham, Joseph D. Webster, Joseph T. Ryer-
son, Isaac N. Arnold, Norman B. Judd, John H. Dunham, A. H. Mueller,
Samuel S. Greeley, B. F. Cook, N. S. Davis, George W. Dole, George
W. Higginson, John H. Kinzie, John Woodbridge, Jr., Erastus S.
Williams, Philo Carpenter, George W. Gage, S. S. Hayes, Henry Farn-
ham, William H. Brown and Phillip J. Wardner were the incorporators.
The object of the corporation was to provide a permanent, efficient and
practical mode of administering and distributing the private charities of
the city of Chicago, and to obtain full and reliable information of the
wants of the poor. In the Autumn of 1857 the society was organized
under this charter. Since that time it has been one of the most efficient
helps to government, and one of the greatest blessings to the poor that
ever existed in any nation or any city. Its work is so systematically done
that imposition is next to impossible, and the poor need never suffer. Into
such hands the Mayor showed wisdom in placing the control of the large
contributions which were pouring into the city after its great calamity.
' On the morning of the nineteenth of October, the following commu-
nication appeared in the public press of the city : "In order that the public
may understand the condition of the organization for the distribution of
contributions for the sufferers by the Chicago fire, it should be known that
the Mayor of the city of Chicago, as well as the Citizens' Committee, have
turned over all contributions to the Chicago Relief and Aid Society, and
that aside from that Society there is no other authorized to receive contri-
butions for general distribution.
There are many special societies as well as individuals to whom
special donations have been directed. These are doing an excellent work
and cannot be dispensed with.
Our object is, to direct attention to the fact that there is no conflict in
the work, and that contributions for the general fund should come to this
Association. R. B. MASON, Mavor.'V/"'
'tfr
(On the same date the Relief and Aid Society addressed the subjoined
communication to all newspapers : j'The response to the sufferings of
our stricken citizens was so spontaneous and universal, that money, cloth-
ing, and provisions were sent not only to the authorities of our city, but
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 323
to many individuals, some of which, owing to the derangement of all
business, may have miscarried.
To the end that these unparalleled contributions may be preserved,
judiciously applied, and sacredly accounted for, we ask all persons and
committees everywhere to send to this society duplicate statements, so far
as possible, of all articles and especially of sums of money sent for our
aid, together with the name of the person o^r society to whom sent.
A complete record of the sources of these contributions, together with
the history of their expenditure, will be preserved for future publication.
All newspapers, at home and abroad, are requested to publish this circular.
Address WIRT DEXTER,
Chairman Executive Committee Relief and Aid Society."
The total number of different families aided from October, 1871, to May, 1873. . 39 242
Average number in family ................................................. 4
Total number of persons aided ............................................ 156 968
Food was given at first indiscriminately, and in uncertain quantities,
for want of conveniences in measuring and weighing. As soon as possi-
ble, however, it was reduced to fixed rations, and as the system of distri-
bution was perfected, these were given out at intervals of two or three
days, and finally of a week. At first, as the people had few conveniences
for cooking, bread was given instead of flour, at an increased cost of
forty-two cents to the ration. This was afterward almost wholly saved,
as most of the applicants were supplied with stoves, and baked their own
bread. Crackers, for the first few days, were substituted for bread, when
the supply of bread was insufficient. All the crackers used, however,
were contributions from abroad. Coffee or tea was given, as the applicant
preferred; but tea, which was the cheaper, was the more usually chosen.
The following ration for a family of five persons was found to be sufficient
for one week :
Three pounds pork, at five and one-half cents ................................ 16^
Six pounds beef, at five cents ............................................... 30
Fourteen pounds flour, at three cents ........................................ 42
One and one-fourth peck potatoes, at twenty cents ........ .................... 25
One- fourth pound tea at eighty cents ........................................ 20
One and one-half pounds sugar, at eleven cents ............................... 16^
One and one-fourth pounds rice, at eight cents ; or three and one-half pounds
beans, at three and three-fourths cents ................................... 12
One and one-fourth pounds soap, at seven cents .............................. 09
One and one-half pounds dried apples, at eight cents ...................... . . 12
Three pounds fresh beef, at five cents ................................ , ...... 15
Total ......................... .............................. $ i 98
If bread, at four cents per pound, was used instead of flour, the cost was increased . .. 42
If crackers at seven cents per pound ........................................... i 05
If one and one-half pounds of coffee instead of tea .............................. 17
The demand for clothing was incessant and immense. The larger
proportion of those who were sufferers by the fire lost their personal
:ipparel and their household goods. Immediate and urgent need was only
very partially met by the bountiful supplies which were sent forward from
all quarters. Much of this supply was of second hand Summer clothing,
which was all that people could lay their hands on in the first emergency.
324
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
It answered a good though only a temporary purpose, and the necessity
of substituting for it better and warmer garments was constant and im-
perative. The markets of this country could not supply the demand for
blankets alone. Where the supply of ready-made clothing was insuffi-
cient, piece goods were given out in measured quantities to applicants to
make up for themselves. In this work great assistance was rendered by
associations of ladies, as the Ladies' Relief and Aid Society; the Ladies'
Industrial Aid Society of St. John's Church; the Ladies' Christian Union;
the Ladies' Society of Park Avenue Church; and the Ladies' Society of
The Home of The Friendless; all of these societies employed a large
number of sewing women, thrown out of employment by the fire, in mak-
ing up garments, bed comforters, bed-ticks, and other articles, from piece
goods supplied by the Relief Society to be returned, thus manufactured,
to the several depots for distribution.
The following table will show the distribution of general relief from
October, 1871, to April 2oth, 1873:
ARTICLES.
Rent paid, dollars
NO. DISTRIBUTED.
C.S OCK 4.1
ARTICLES. NO.
\Vhite and gray blankets. . .
DISTRIBUTED.
76 7C.8
Tons coal
47 74.Q
.Bed and pillow ticks
2 241
Cords wood
I4.C
Comforts
IO 3.0,8
Pounds flour
2 2Q4 8O2
Sheets.
3. 1 2O
meal
64 6n.yz
. . .. 15 O22
pork
. 4O4 84O
Pieces of pipe
C2 474
beef.
. 620 7io
Tables
Q 332
bread
... 727 24O
Bedsteads
16 776
crackers
. 18^ 641
Chairs
-2 1 C$6
fish
24 7^1
Pieces crockery
68 140
. .. 2C4 771
Wash tubs
o 77?
candles
. I7O <U2
Pails
4 O7l
cheese
4 227
\Vash boards
6 386
tea
44 0403/6
Tin ware .
04
coffee
... 72 O77
... 34
sutrar. .
. 717 Oil 14
oo •
" lemons
I O4
bacon
7-2 CO7
274
hams . . . . .
6 988
Bottles wine . . .
2Q
butter
i 08754
Pairs shoes
77 244
fruit, dried
178 8o63/
" men's hose
18 160
salt
7 1.18
" women's hose . ...
V) 142
rice
6? 772 '/
Knives and forks .' . .
27
fresh beef
£ II* A
I 14.8 O74
Clothes wringer
. . .. I
lard
I 64^
Men's clothing
. 131 332
mutton
10 116
\Vomen's clothing
. I ?4 IOI
Cans canned fruit
2C7
. IO7 344
" " vegetables
1"?
Yards wool flannel . .
. 114 cei
CO
canton flannel
... 90 828
Bushels potatoes
64 O7O3/£
prints
. . . 208 042
" beans
7 80614
sheeting
. I 70 IZ1/4
" onions
8615
jeans . .
869151
Pecks turnips
72
ticking
47O
82C
towTeling
... 4 0^4
" svruo .
I 7QI
water-proof
•) 184
Packages corn starch. . .
00
crash
286
" farina
I2C
Rubber blankets
. 2
" ex. beef
126
Heads cabbage
22
Mattresses
28 901
Brooms
. . 6
Pillows
15*2
Pounds fresh pork
442
Immediately after the fire, the Board of Health began to gather the
sick and injured who could not find refuge in private families, into churches
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 325
and school houses where they were tenderly cared for by physicians and
citizens, who very generally tendered their services. In order that there
might be as little delay as possible, the sanitary policemen were authorized
by the Mayor to impress teams for the transportation of the sick from the
prairies and vacant lots whither they had been driven by the flames. At
the headquarters of the Citizens' Committee, corner of West Washington
and Ann streets, Drs. Ranch and Johnson, of the Board of Health, and
Dr. J. E. Oilman of the Citizens' Committee were constantly engaged in
assigning physicians and providing medicines and stores for the churches
and other buildings used as temporary hospitals.
When the Relief and Aid Society took charge of the general relief
work in accordance with the proclamation of the Mayor, it assigned to
Dr. H. A. Johnson the special duty of organizing and directing this depart-
ment, with authority to associate with himself such members of the medical
profession as he should think best. The following gentlemen comprised
the committee as finally constituted: Dr. H. A. Johnson, Chairman, and
Drs. B. McVickar, R. Ludlam, M. J. Asche, J. H. Rauch, M. Manheimer,
Ernst Schmidt, B. C. Miller, and Reverend H. N. Powers. Dr. J. E.
Oilman was appointed Secretary.
In addition to this provision for the visitation of the sick at their
homes, dispensaries were established at convenient points, where such
patients as were able to apply in person for advice were treated, and where
medicines were dispensed upon the prescriptions of any physician certify-
ing that his services in the case were gratuitous. In the North Division of
the city there was only one of these institutions; in the West Division
there were three, and in the South Division two. Medicines were also
dispensed and out-patients treated at all of the hospitals.
For the relief of such patients as could not safely be treated in their
homes or quarters, and who could not apply at a dispensary, hospital
accommodations were provided. Fortunately the principal hospitals of
the city were in the unburned district. Arrangements were made with all
these institutions by which patients were received on account of this
Society, without charge for medical and surgical attendance, nursing and
general care; the Society furnishing only medicines, rations, and furniture
for such relief patients as were received on its account. These hospitals
were as follows:
The Providence Hospital, located just beyond the northern limits
of the city. The Women's and Children's Hospital, formerly located
on North State street, but after the fire at number 598 West Adams
street. This was mainly a lying-in hospital. The Chicago Eye and Ear
Infirmary, under the care of Dr. E. L. Holmes, before the fire on Pearson
street in the North Division, then at 579 West Adams street. St. Luke's
Hospital, on Indiana avenue between Fourteenth and Sixteenth streets.
The Hahnemann Hospital, on Cottage Grove avenue near Twenty-ninth
street. Mercy Hospital, corner of Calumet avenue and Twenty-sixth
street, and the County Hospital, on Arnold street near Eighteenth street.
326
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
In addition to these accommodations, hospitals were constructed in the
West and North Divisions of the city. Patients were admitted to hospitals
upon the order of the medical officers of the Chicago Relief and Aid
Society, the Sanitary Superintendent of the Board of Health, and the
County Physician.
The following table will show the amount of money contributed by
different States and nations, and which this society mainly had the hand-
ling of:
UNITED STATES.
Maine
$21 043 47
22 727 15
5 789 43
629 672 41
59 So? 33
107 183 92
1 35^45! 50
158 397 75
482 976 72
8 070 70
l82 122 30
1 1 362 66
!5 596 4°
94 47° 4s
11500
i "755
2 065 75
i 049 23
500
65 oo
28 933 96
8 no ii
75 882 25
46 751 62
FOR]
$15346278
6 707 63
i 090 oo
9411 64
640 70
i° 393 37
2 272 25
402 25
29563
IO 677 21
86845
I 44105
I03II 41
i 635 oo
2 897 70
2 325 32
Illinois
. . $66 527 18
New Hampshire
Kentucky
27 769 20
Vermont
Tennessee
21 8?6 70
Massachusetts . .
Michigan
?S 4. i A 6j
Rhode Island
Wisconsin
4.22 OO
Connecticut
Minnesota
24. 4.17 QO
Iowa
17 648 60
Missouri
67 COA 2 C
Pennsylvania .
Arkansas
2 72C 8^
Delaware
Kansas
21 211 8?
Maryland
Nebraska
17 47O 12
Colorado Territory
12 8« 8;
\Vest Virginia
Nevada Territory
i ^oc: Si
District of Columbia
California
. 1 68 <CI2 4.1
North Carolina
Oregon
. . ii 881 C2
South Carolina.
Dakota Territory
OQ OO
Georgia
Washington Territory
I "\OQ 8l
Florida
Utah Territory
I? ^S I II
Alabama
Wyoming Territory
800 oo
Mississippi .
New Mexico
I 4QC CO
Louisiana .
Miscellaneous
?6i e6
Texas
Total, United States S
Ohio
$3846032 71
•^
.. $4.1 C O2 1 1 8
Indiana
SIGN.
England
Nova Scotia
Wales
1 163 4.6
Newfoundland
Ireland
74. 161 16
New Brunswick .
Scotland
7C 11 C 62
British Columbia
France .....
62 782 80
Island of Cuba
Belgium
III OO
Holland . . .
24.1 1C
Central Americ?
Germany . . .
8l 1Q1 2Q
Venezuela
Austria
3 801 50
Brazil . .
Switzerland
1 C 74.O O C
Argentine Republic
Russia ....
IAC OI
Uruguay . .
Italy
84,7 71
Peru .
Portugal.
117 28
Total, Foreign
China
,$97389780
71
80
65
India .
$7 R,ifi C\TJ
Total, United States
Total, Foreign
Q73 SQV
Addenda
217
Total Sum $4 820 148 16
327
CHAPTER XXL
PLACES OF AMUSEMENT.
At the time of the great conflagration — which is as far back as it
would be profitable to go in connection with the subject of this chapter —
Chicago was well supplied with theaters and halls, some of which were as
beautiful as any in the world. Four of the prominent theaters had just
undergone a complete renovation and refitting when the flames swept
them from existence. Crosby's Opera House and McVicker's Theater
were among this number and were billed for a reopening on the evening
of the sad ninth of October, the former to be occupied by the Thomas
Orchestral Combination, and the latter by Mr. Jefferson with Rip Van
Winkle. The Orchestral Combination and Mr. Jefferson arrived to fill
their engagements just in time to witness the destruction of the houses in
which they were to' perform. Crosby's Opera House, with its rich
upholstery, luxurious carpets, bronzes and mirrors was a picture of ele-
gance. Eighty thousand dollars had just been expended in its refitting,
and a writer says that a few hours before the conflagration, when invited
guests were looking at it, "not one of the few who were present but pro-
nounced it to be the most gorgeous auditorium in America." The house
had had a conspicuous career previous to its renovation and destruction.
In April, 1865, it was formally dedicated to music, and during the six years
of its existence had been the instrumentality of presenting to Chicago the
choicest of English, French, German and Italian Operas. In the Winter
of 1870, the owner seriously thought of converting the auditorium into
business offices, but was dissuaded from his purpose, a yielding to influence
which cost eighty thousand dollars. McVicker's theater was entirely new
except the four walls. The interior had been thoroughly remodeled and
a mansard roof had replaced the old one.
Hooley's Opera House was the result of remodeling an old concert
hall, called Bryan Hall, the year previous. The first year of its existence
it was devoted to negro minstrelsy. During the Summer of 1871, it was
entirely remodeled, the stage enlarged and thoroughly equipped, and in
the following September was opened by Frank Aiken as a comedy theater.
It was- the property of Richard M. Hooley who constructed it, and at
the date of the fire was under the management of Mr. Aiken and Frank
Lawler, whom Mr. Aiken had associated with him as partner.
The Dearborn Theater, which was among the theaters destroyed, was
also first opened by Mr. Aiken. He retained the management of it but for
328 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
a few months, however, when it passed into the hands of Brand and Van
Fleet, and instead of a dramatic house, became the house of minstrelsy,
which it continued to be until its destruction.
Wood's Museum was one of the early institutions of the city. It
combined a theater and curiosity department. Its experience down to the
time that its management was assumed by Colonel Wood, was of a very
checkered character. He was a man who had been connected with
Phineas T. Barnum, and his experience enabled him to make it a success
while it was under his control. Some years before the great fire, how-
ever, he retired from its management, Mr. Aiken succeeding him. Again
the fortunes of the place began to wane, and in the Summer of 1871,
Colonel Wood again took charge of it. He now refitted the building,
enlarging the museum department, and had just opened it with a theatrical
company under the management of J. S. Langrishe, when it was consumed.
With the exception of Crosby's Opera House, and Dearborn Theater,
the theaters were rebuilt, and new ones have been added to the list until
no city in the Union has a better class of theaters than Chicago. Wood's
Museum was burned again a few years later, and since that misfortune
has not been rebuilt or had an existence. Mr. Me Vicker erected a beauti-
ful temple which bears his name, and made of it as handsome a place as
anything of the character in the country. It is located on Madison street
between Dearborn and State streets, and its elegant front is an ornament to
the city. Hooley's Theater is a charming piece of architecture, and occupies
a conspicuous location on Randolph street between LaSalle and Clark
streets. Haverly's Theater has been introduced since the general destruc-
tion. It is situated on the corner of Monroe and Dearborn streets, and is
one of the monuments to the desolation of 1871. Previous to that event
it was the postorfice, and belonged to the general government. On the
ninth of October nothing but the four walls remained to remind
the beholder of the existence of an elegant building the day before. The
government made a trade with the city, and the property became a part
of the school lands. At first it was a question whether it would not be
best to erect an entire new building upon the site. The walls, however,
being strong it was finally determined to retain them, and they stand
amidst the busy life of to-day a scorched and battered remnant of Chicago
before the fire. The building was rebuilt, with the exception of the walls,
and became a theater. After some vicissitudes it passed into the hands of
John H. Haverly, who converted it into a popular amusement resort,
and it is now one of the three leading theaters — McVicker's, Hooley's and
Haverly's. In October, iSSo, the building was leased to the First Na-
tional Bank, and at the expiration of Mr. Haverly's lease it will cease to
be a theater. It is not likely, however, that Mr. Haverly will leave a city
in which he has enjoyed so many triumphs, and if he does not it is proba-
ble that he will erect one of the finest theaters in the world.
The Academy of Music is located on South Halsted street, and is one
of the best appointed theaters in the city. The present building is a new
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 329
one, the old Academy of Music having twice shared, at late dates, the fate
of the South Side houses. It is the principal theater in the West Division,
and is really a work of architecture which is beautifying to the city.
The Central Music Hall, on the corner of Randolph and State streets,
is a model building of its kind, and supplies a want which was long felt in
the city. It was completed in the Spring of 1880. For its existence
Chicago is indebted to George B. Carpenter, through whose efforts capital
was enlisted in the enterprise. Mr. Carpenter is the manager of the hall
which his own enterprise has created.
Farwell Hall — named from John V. Far well, an eminent merchant
and Christian worker — is located on Madison street, between LaSalle and
Clark streets, and is the property and headquarters of the Young Men's
Christian Association. Farwell Hall existed previous to the fire, and was
rebuilt. It is now a commodious and beautiful structure, affording accom-
modations for the various purposes of the Association which owns it, and
is used for any respectable entertainment or gathering.
McCormick Hall is the largest in the city, #nd is upon Clark street
on the North Side. It was erected by, and is still the property of Cyrus
H. McCormick. It has been the scene of many triumphs in art, music,
literature and representative politics. It was in this hall that Zachariah
Chandler made his last speech — in the Spring of 1880 — and from which
he went to his hotel to die before his words had been printed. The morn-
ing papers contained his speech, and also the announcement of his demise.
Our wisest and most eloquent statesmen and orators have electrified the
multitude within the walls of this hall. In this respect no other building
in the city could reveal so much of interest, if dead walls could talk.
Hershey Music Hall, originally constructed for, and still principally
devoted to the advancement of musical science, is public when required
for any legitimate purpose. It was opened by Mrs. Hershey, one of our
most accomplished musical artistes, who has since become the wife of
H. Clarence Eddy, an organist of high reputation.
These comprise the -principal places which are now regularly or
occasionally opened for the amusement or instruction of the people. They
are their own evidence of their completeness, and together are a monu-
ment to the progress of our great city.
33°
RICHARD M. HOOLEY.
Among the men who occupy an exalted position in the esteem and
affection of this community, Richard M. Hooley, the proprietor and man-
ager of Hooley's Theater, is a conspicuous figure. Cherishing a jealous
regard for the reputation, progress and general welfare of the city in
whose adversity as well as prosperity he has been a participant, his citizen-
ship is distinguished for purity of motives and ennobling achievement.
Enterprising and public-sph'ited, possessed of extensive information and a
large experience, a lover and connoisseur of art, and ambitious to be urbane
and pleasing, the influence of his life is peculiarly valuable to a new and
developing community ; and even where types of the most useful manhood,
citizenship and enterprise are as plentiful as they are in Chicago, a life
like Mr. Hooley's can never escape the notice which its prominent indi-
viduality merits.
As a manager, our subject is among the oldest in the world, and -that
our young city has among its permanent residents and active business men
one entitled to such distinction, in a profession which achieves its triumphs
only among the cultured and prosperous, is one of the evidences of the
rapid progress and high character of this people; and that M,r. Houley in
the midst of the smoking ruins of the ninth of October, 1871, in which
were his theater and his fortune, but neither his hope nor his courage, de-
termined to rebuild, and to remain where he had already achieved signal
triumphs, is proof of his appreciation of the intelligence and of his faith in
the energy of Chicago, as well as of that sterling character which has
made him so valuable a citizen.
Richard M. Hooley was born in Ballina, Ireland, April I3th, 1822,
and is the son of James and Ann Hooley. When he was three months
old, his parents removed to Manchester, England, where the son spent his
boyhood and early manhood. The father, who was a prosperous merchant,
was desirous of fitting Richard for the medical profession, and to that end
afforded him every facility for acquiring a finished education. Accord-
ingly after a sufficient preparation, he entered the Hyde Academy at
Manchester — a typical English high grade school — in which he remained
until he was eighteen years of age. At this time a talent for music began to
develop so prominently — the tastes of the young man being largely in that
direction — that the idea of making a physician of him was abandoned and
he applied himself to the study of the art of music, a change of original
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 331
plans which, judging from the character of the man, as since developed,
lost to medical science a close student and an eminent representative, but
which contributed to another profession a force which has operated to
uphold its standard of honor and usefulness, and has added something to its
fame.
Having mastered first the rudiments and then the delicate intricacies of
the musical art, he entered the theater as a musician, and thus began a life
which has been ceaselessly active, more than ordinarily eventful, and which
has matured into honorable and useful prominence. The young musician
was not long in a subordinate position. Nature had molded him to direct
and not to be directed — to manage and not to be managed. Becoming in
the natural course of events, therefore, a manager, his genius was soon
•demonstrated to be of a character particularly adapted to his chosen sphere
of action, and through all his subsequent life it may be especially said of
him that he was and is the right man in the right place.
Mr. Hooley has built, or remodeled, and managed more theaters than
any other man now living, and among the structures to which his taste
has given design or embellishment are theaters in London, New York,
Brooklyn, Williamsburg, San Francisco, Madison, Philadelphia and Chi-
•cago. - For thirty-six years he has thus been erecting or improving Thespian
temples, and holding up the mirror for the reflection of nature ; and during
these years has traveled all over the United States, Canada, England, Ire-
land and Scotland, parts of France and Belgium, has made the journey to
and from California, by water, eight times, and once by rail, and has seen
the world in all of its softest lights and varying shadows. With such
varied and valuable experience he made a permanent settlement in Chicago
— which he first visited in 1845 — in 1869, and has since devoted his energies
to maintaining here a theater which for architectural beauty and the char-
acter of the entertainments given upon its stage, is unsurpassed and not
readily surpassable. In the great fire Mr. Hooley's losses amounted to
about a hundred and fifty thousand dollars, but with this exception, he has
never met with any very serious drawbacks or misfortunes.
In June, 1858, Mr. Hooley was married at San Francisco to Rosina
Creamer. Three children — all interesting and accomplished young ladies
— whose names are Rosina, Grace Eveline and Mary, complete the family
circle, which is in every respect all that a refined husband and father could
desire.
In personal appearance Mr. Hooley is a man of marked characteristics,
possessing a commanding presence, and having a dignified bearing. In
business and social intercourse he is exceedingly affable, and his manner
readily wins the respect and confidence of the stranger, as well as gaining
for him the warm friendship of those who are his associates. In private
and public his life is governed by a strict regard for the requirements of
principle, and the rights and happiness of those about him. In all of his
relations with the world he is considerate, honorable and upright.
332 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
JOHN H. HAVERLY.
John H. Haverly, the proprietor of Haverly's Theater, is one of the
most marked characters that has ever been identified with Chicago. As
an amusement caterer, he is a Napoleon in conception and execution; but
immensely and wonderfully successful as he has been in his chosen profes-
sion, he would have been equally so in any calling that required intimate
knowledge of human nature, ability to instantly grasp the details of situa-
tions, and marvelous quickness of decision. As a military, commander or
an executive of complicated government, few men of whom history con-
tains a record would have surpassed him in brilliancy of design or
completeness of execution. This apparently extravagant estimate of the
man is abundantly sustained by his successful management of various
enterprises, any one of which would tax to the utmost an ordinary mind.
That success in business depends upon the personal attention and oversight
of the manager has become, in view of the business wrecks which have
resulted from a neglect to observe the condition, axiomatic. Simply look-
ing, therefore, at Mr. Haverly's success, without any knowledge of his
business habits, the inevitable conclusion is that he keeps his gigantic
enterprises well in hand — that no detail of any one of them is concealed
from his knowledge.
But such a conclusion, in view of the multifarious enterprises which
he is conducting, and which are widely separated from each other, is really
of a character that is bewildering to contemplate; it embraces so much of
superiority of natural endowments that it almost arouses incredulity. In
Chicago there are Haverly's Theater, Haverly's Mining Exchange,
Haverly's Golden Group Mining Company and Haverly's Jockey Club
and Riding Park; in New York we find Haverly's Fifth Avenue Theater,
Haverly's Fourteenth Street Theater and Haverly's Niblo's Garden; in
Brooklyn, New York, the Brooklyn Theater is under his management;,
and in addition to these Haverly's Mastodon Minstrels, and numerous
other troupes are constantly upon the road.
When it is affirmed, as it must be, that all these enterprises are pros-
perous and profitable, however much the mind may be astonished at the
elasticity, breadth and endurance of the intellect that can plan and execute
upon a scale of such magnitude and intricacy, the fact remains unassailed
and unassailable. The execution of plans he must necessarily largely
intrust to subordinates; but, like the successful general, his judgment of
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
333
•men is unerring, and when his aids have been selected, he imbues them
with his own spirit of energy and fidelity to details. It is his orders that
are being executed by loyal employees in the presentation of a well
appointed entertainment in Chicago, although the master hand may be
thousands of miles away.
The entertainments at his theaters and by his great combinations are
always of the highest order. He is as imperial in his tastes as he is in the
management of his complicated business; and thus naturally caters to
the amusement of the refined and fashionable. It is often remarked that
Mr. Haverly can assume the management of any theater, however much
it may have suffered in reputation, and at once restore it to the confidence
•of the public. In Chicago there is not a shadow of doubt that this would
be possible. As reflected upon his stage his character is the same as when
reflected in his office — rapid in execution and satisfactory in all its features.
Approaching him upon business, his decision is quick, his answer final,
and he is ready for the next applicant for a hearing. Mining business,
perhaps, may be thus first dispatched; then a matter concerning the Jockey
Club, then the complaint or request of a performer; now a presentation
of some scheme in which he has no interest, and again an outside project
which may strike him favorably and attract his attention — whatever the
character of the picture of the constantly moving panorama passing before
this busy man, that happens to open to him, it is soon motioned away to
give place to another; and this is an accurate picture of his management
as a director of public amusements. First the standard opera occupies the
boards at his theater; then comes the most popular drama and dramatic
troupe in the country; these are supplanted by burlesque opera, which in
turn gives way to comedy, to be quickly followed by superior negro
minstrelsy, or other change of an interesting character. In fact his theater
and his life are typical of well directed impetuosity.
Haverly 's Theater in Chicago, is, from its associations, an interesting
monument of a most interesting event in the history of Chicago. It stands
at the corner of Monroe and Dearborn streets, and its walls bear evi-
dence of the terrible fury of the great conflagration. As a fire relic,
with the path of the devastator marked upon it, it is appreciated by every
Chicagoan who passed through that terrible ordeal, and the visitor views
it with some such feeling as he would regard an ancient and disfigured
obelisk.
This brief history of one of Chicago's most popular theaters, and of
one of the world's most successful theatrical managers and business men
is upon the verge of closing. It is impossible in this limited space to detail
the steps by which Mr. Haverly has risen to his present eminence, or to
prophesy the reasonable possibilities of the future. He is yet a young
man, having been born in 1837, at Bellfonte, Pennsylvania. His tastes
have always been in the direction in which he is now making his successes,
and from every indication the belief is warranted that he will become the
richest as he is now one of the most famous of Chicago's public men.
334
WILLIAM B. CLAPP.
In this age of colossal enterprise and marked intellectual energy,
the prominent and successful men in the commercial world are those
whose abilities, persistence and courage lead them into large undertakings,
and to assume the responsibilities and labors of leaders in their respective
avocations. Commercial success, as at present regarded, consists in abso-
lute leadership, and whatever falls below this, however really meritorious,
is but indifferently regarded. The day of small things in the marts of trade
is past, and the footsteps of the millions are directed toward our mammoth
stores and manufactories, passing with irritating haste the small establish-
ments of those who have been unable to keep abreast with the tendencies
of the times. The fact that the humble shop-keeper has been swallowed
up by the extensive establishment by his side; that the steam factory has
overshadowed the solitary mechanic at his bench, and that our large
wholesale houses have made the smaller ones of little use and of less
profit, may be unpleasant for the distanced and defeated in the manufac-
turing and commercial race to contemplate, yet, nevertheless, it is a fact.
The judicious use of large capital in business enterprises makes these
results inevitable, but capital alone is not sufficient to do it. Business
competition, when opposition in trade rises to the dignity of competition,
is eminently a conflict of mind, in which the best endowed and most
thoroughly trained intellect, supplemented by integrity and honesty,
achieves the victory. In a contest between brain and capital, the former
will win, and when both are united they compose a more formidable
force than the grandest of armies most thoroughly equipped. It is per-
fectly natural, therefore, for the world to be interested in men who have
achieved the greatest business success, and are proprietors of our great
business establishments, for the divinity of mind always excites our
warmest admiration. Hence, we give place here to a sketch of the life
of William B. Clapp, the senior proprietor of the large wholesale jewelry
house of William B. Clapp, Brother & Company at the corner of Slate
and Monroe streets.
William B. Clapp was born at Montgomery, Franklin county, Ver-
mont, July 3d, 1831. His parents' names were Joshua and Fannie Clapp.
The father was a prominent and useful citizen, being at one time State
Senator, and for four or five terms a member of the lower house of the
State legislature, beside serving as clerk of his town for torty years.
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 335
Until he was eighteen years of age, William lived at his native place,
dividing his time between labor on his father's farm and attendance upon
the common school, giving, however — as is usual in such cases — much
more time to work than to the school-room. But farm life was not con-
genial to a mind that was so well calculated to achieve grandly, if it but
had the opportunity, and at the age mentioned, young Clapp went to
Springfield, Massachusetts, where he became apprenticed to the jewelry
business. After remaining here for three years, during which he thor-
oughly mastered the details of a business in which he has since become
so prominent, he removed to Boston, Massachusetts, and opened a retail
jewelry store. At the expiration of three years he entered into a
co-partnership with another, and leaving the retail business, opened and
successfully conducted a wholesale establishment. In 1858 he removed
to Cincinnati, where he continued in the business of wholesale jewelry;
and in 1863 he connected himself with the mercantile business in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania, building the same year, also, the Pittsburgh Opera House,
then the finest theater in that city.
In 1869, Mr. Clapp came to Chicago, where he has built up one of
the largest wholesale jewelry houses in the country, and has made his
name synonymous with the most advanced enterprise not only in this
principal line of business but in other undertakings which have greatly
benefited the city of his, adoption. He was one of the founders of the
Wilson Packing Company, which is one of the largest concerns in this
city engaged in the great industry of packing preserved meats. Another
of the monuments to his public spirited enterprise is the beautiful
Academy of Music, located on Halsted street, near Madison, The
original Academy was built by him in December, 1871, the entire con-
struction of the building and its first opening being accomplished within
thirty days from the date of his purchase of the ground, one of the many
incidents in his busy life that shows the natural energy of his character.
In 1873 Mr. Clapp rebuilt and remodeled the house, making it a very
much finer structure than the original was. The new building was
destroyed by an incendiary fire in 1877, when it was immediately rebuilt by
the proprietor, he first having purchased twenty-five feet additional
ground, enabling him to construct a building seventy-five by one hundred
feet, which is the present size of the Academy. October loth, 1880, the
theater was again partially destroyed by fire, but was at once rebuilt, at
a cost of about fifty thousand dollars. In this last reconstruction Mr..
Clapp determined to make the house the finest and safest theater not onlv
in the city but in the world, and with this purpose in view he raised the
walls eight feet; entirely rebuilt the stage, introducing all modern improve-
ments; constructed two fire-proof buildings which are entirely separate
from the theater and are used for the storage of stage properties and
surplus scenery, and for the accommodation of the carpenter and other
workmen, and connected the theater with the insurance patrol. The
stage of the Academy is now unsurpassed by any stage in the world, and
336 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
the house itself is not only the most beautiful but is as nearly fire-proof
as it is practicable to make a theater. The present Academy was re-opened
December i6th, 1880, and the unanimous verdict of the public at the
time was that for beauty, convenience and safety it could not be excelled.
Naturally the people of the West Side are pardonably proud of this
temple of the drama, and they show their appreciation of the enterprise
which created it in their midst by bestowing upon it a patronage which
makes it the most profitable theater in America.
Mr. Clapp was married at Boston, Massachusetts, in 1853, to Char-
lotte Gove, of that city, with whom he lived happily until 1862, when
she died at Cincinnati, Ohio. He was married a second time, in 1864, to
Anna Hoag, of Boston, and has one child, Annie Louise, born Novem-
ber 30th, 1878.
William B. Clapp has been the architect of his own fortune. In the
broadest sense a self-made man, he has reached his prominence and won
the universal respect which he enjoys by an arduous application of his
natural talents to his business pursuits and an uncompromising upright-
ness of character. In all his vast dealings with the world, he has never
suffered his word or his acts to be compromised by equivocation or
subterfuge, but has been throughout his business career straightforward
and conscientious.
337
CHAPTER XXII.
NOTABLE EVENTS OF NATIONAL CHARACTER.
Chicago as now situated is the theater of grander events which are
made or celebrated by large gatherings of people than is possible in any
other city of the Union. This is made possible by her vast railroad sys-
tem, which taps every district in the entire settled portions of the coun-
try. From almost every important point of the nation the passenger for
this city can take his seat in the car, and give himself no more concern
until the arrival at the point of his destination is announced; he may travel
over many roads but they all lead in unbroken connections to Chicago.
On extraordinary occasions, therefore, the multitude pours into the city
from all points of the compass, like an avalanche on the Alps. From the
Atlantic's culture and primness and the Pacific's beauty and enterprise;
from the snows of Canada and the bloom of the Gulf; from palace and
cottage, and from factory and farm the people rush to witness anything of
an unusual character which is presented in this empire city of the West.
With all the hotel accommodations which Chicago possesses — and they
are immense — she is unable to furnish a temporary home beneath a roof
for the throngs that crowd upon her on great occasions.
With such facilities, therefore, it is natural that this should be a favorite
point for great gatherings and important displays. Political conventions,
secret society annuals, national trade gatherings, and meetings of similar
character, are now appointed here with a frequency that makes their pres-
ence of scarcely more than ordinary notice by the citizen, who walks the
streets and threads his way among the visiting strangers with his proverbial
haste, as if nothing unusual were occurring in the midst of our people,
stopping, if at all, in his persistent pursuit of business to be civil to a
stranger who may be bold enough to accost the apparent runaway. The
people of Chicago although usually in a hurry, always have time to direct
a stranger, and to make him feel that his presence is welcome and that
the honor of his visit is appreciated. When a visitor is accorded treatment
different from this, it may be fearlessly assumed that he has met a man of
recent importation, or one to whom Chicago has been so partial that she
has improved his fortunes until they are greater than his breeding or his
intellect.
But the city does not rely upon the more recent events of a national
character which have occurred within her domains, to distinguish her as
one of the most prominent cities of the nation as linked with modern
33$ CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
national history. Some of these have already been described in foregoing
chapters. But others of equal interest remain to be mentioned, and among
them the Republican National Convention which placed Abraham Lincoln
in nomination for the Presidency is notable. The convention assembled
May 1 6th, 1860. It was generally expected that William H. Seward, of
New York, would receive the nomination, and among those who most
ardently expected it was Mr. Seward himself. Upon common principles
of reasoning, his nomination was something more than a probability. He
was the one bright intellectual star of his party, and was the very gener-
ally acknowledged embodiment of its principles. He had proclaimed
that an irrepressible conflict existed between freedom and slavery, and
although he was somewhat in advance of the courage of his party, it was
pretty well understood that the Republican party cherished no love for
the institution of slavery, and that it only awaited proper opportunity to
at least confine it to itself. Mr. Seward, however, failed of a nomination,
and the convention inaugurated the political policy which has controlled
this government for the past twenty years. Abraham Lincoln was the
nominee. He had been a member of Congress, but when nominated for
the Presidency was simply a practicing lawyer at the capital of Illinois.
His success in the convention was undoubtedly owing to his joint discus-
sion with Stephen A. Douglas, through the State, the year previous,
the object of which was to secure a legislature that would elect one of the
respective disputants to the United States Senate. Mr. Douglas triumphed.
But although Mr. Lincoln could but have seen the effect he had made
upon the nation, and might have hoped for the nomination at the Chicago
convention, he could hardly have expected it. He received three hun-
dred and fifty-four out of four hundred and sixty-six votes on the third
ballot. Besides Mr. Seward, he had as formidable competitors Salmon P.
Chase and Edward Bates.
As already noticed Mr. Lincoln was elected in the following Novem-
ber, defeating Stephen A. Douglas and John C. Breckenridge, Democrats,
and John Bell, who ran upon a ticket on which Edward Everett was the
candidate for Vice President, under the auspices of the "Union" party.
The South made preparations at once to disrupt the Union, and patriots
were anxious and feverish. They were willing to sink partisan animosities
and strike hands with any one who would raise the flag of the nation, and
defy those who would tear it from its staff. Among this class was the great
Douglas who had just met with defeat and had really suffered a blight-
ing of his fondest hopes. On the first of May — after Mr. Lincoln had been
inaugurated and the civil war had begun — this statesman and patriot was
tendered a reception by the people of Chicago — in whose midst his remains
now rest, guarded by the veneration of those of every political faith, while
his name is upon every Chicago heart — and he made the following speech:
"I thank you for the kind terms in which you have been pleased to
welcome me. I thank the committee and citizens of Chicago for this
grand and imposing reception. I beg you to believe that I will not do
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
339
you nor myself the injustice to believe this magnificent ovation is personal
homage to myself. I rejoice to know that it expresses your devotion to
the constitution, the Union, and the flag of our country.
I will not conceal gratification at the incontrovertible test this vast
audience presents — that what political differences or party questions may
have divided us, yet you all had a conviction that when the country should
be in danger, my loyalty could be relied on. That the present danger is
imminent, no man can conceal. If war must come, if the bayonet must
be used to maintain the constitution, I can say before God my conscience
is clean. I have struggled long for a peaceful solution of the difficulty. I
have not only tendered those States what was theirs of right, but I -have
gone to the very extreme of magnanimity.
The return we receive is war, armies marched upon our capital, obstruc-
tions and dangers to our navigation, letters of marque to invite pirates to
prey upon our commerce, a concerted movement to blot out the United
States of America from the map of the globe. The question is, Are we
to maintain the country of our fathers, or allow it to be stricken down by
those who, when they can no longer govern, threaten to destroy?
What cause, what excuse do disunionists give us for breaking up the
best government on which the sun of heaven ever shed its rays? They
are dissatisfied with the result of a presidential election. Did they never
get beaten before? Are we to resort to the sword when we get defeated
at the ballot box ? I understand it that the voice of the people expressed
in the mode appointed by the constitution must command the obedience
of every citizen. They assume, on the election of a particular candidate,
that their rights are not safe in the Union. What evidence do they pre-
sent of this? I defy any man to show any act on which it is based. What
act has been omitted to be done? I appeal to these assembled thousands
that so far as the constitutional rights of the Southern States, I will say
the constitutional rights of slaveholders, are concerned, nothing has been
done, and nothing omitted, of which they can complain.
There has never been a time from the day that Washington was
inaugurated first President of these United States, when the rights ot
the Southern States stood firmer under the laws of the land than they do
now; there never was a time when they had not as good cause for dis-
union as they have to-day. What good cause have they now that has not
existed under every administration?
If they say the Territorial question — now, for the first time, there is
no act of Congress prohibiting slavery anywhere. If it be the non-
enforcement of the laws, the only complaints that I have heard have been
of the too vigorous and faithful fulfillment of the Fugitive Slave Law.
Then what reason have they?
The slavery question is a mere excuse. The election of Lincoln is a
mere pretext. The present secession movement is the result of an enormous
conspiracy formed more than a year since — formed by leaders in the
Southern Confederacy more than twelve months ago.
340 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
They use the slavery question as a means to aid the accomplishment
of their ends. They desired the election of a Northern candidate, by a
sectional vote, in order to show that the two sections cannot live together.
When the history of the two years from the Lecompton charter down to
the presidential election shall be written, it will be shown that the scheme
was deliberately made to break up this Union.
They desired a Northern Republican to be elected by a purely North-
ern vote, and then assign this fact as a reason why the sections may not
longer live together. If the disunion candidate in the late presidential
contest had carried the united South, their scheme was, the Northern can-
didate successful, to seize the Capital last Spring, and by a united South
and divided North hold it. That scheme was defeated in the defeat of the
disunion candidate in several of the Southern States.
But this is no time for a detail of causes. The conspiracy is now
known. Armies have been raised, war is levied to accomplish it. There
are only two sides to the question. Every man must be for the United
States or against it. There can be no neutrals in this war; only patriots
or traitors.
Thank God, Illinois is not divided on this question. I know they
expected to present a united South against a divided North. They hoped
in the Northern States, party questions would bring civil war between
Democrats and Republicans, when the South would step in with her
cohorts, aid one party to conquer the other, and then make easy prey of
the victors. Their scheme was carnage and civil war in the North.
There is but one way to defeat this. In Illinois it is being so defeated
by closing up the ranks. War will thus be prevented on our own soil.
While there was a hope of peace, I was ready for any reasonable sacrifice
or compromise to maintain it. But when the question comes of war in
the cotton-fields of the South, or the corn-fields of Illinois, I say the
farther off the better.
We cannot close our eyes to the sad and solemn fact that war does
exist. The government must be maintained, its enemies overthrown, and
the more stupendous our preparations the less the bloodshed, and the
shorter the struggle. But we must remember certain restraints on our
action even in the time of war. We are a Christian people, and the war
must be prosecuted in a manner recognized by Christian nations.
We must not invade constitutional rights. The innocent must not suf-
fer, nor women and children be the victims. Savages must not be let loose.
But while I sanction no war on the rights of others, I will implore my
countrymen not to lay down their arms until our own rights are recognized.
The constitution and its guarantees are our birthright, and I am ready
to enforce that inalienable right to the last extent. We cannot recognize
secession. Recognize it once, and you have not only dissolved govern-
ment, but you have destroyed social order — upturned the foundations of
society. You have inaugurated anarchy in its worst form, and will shortly
experience all the horrors of the French Revolution.
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 341
Then we have a solemn duty — to maintain the government. The
greater our unanimity, the speedier the day of peace. We have prejudices
to overcome from the few short months since of a fierce party contest.
Yet these must be allayed. Let us lay aside all criminations and recrimina-
tions as to the origin of these difficulties. When we shall have again a
country with the United States flag floating over it, and respected on
every inch of American soil, it will then be time enough to ask who and
what brought all this upon us.
I have said more than I intended to say. It is a sad task to discuss
questions so fearful as civil war; but sad as it is, bloody and disastrous as
I expect it will be, I express it as my conviction before God, that it is the
duty of every American citizen to rally round the flag of his country. I
thank you again for this magnificent demonstration. By it you show you
have laM aside party strife. Illinois has a proud position — united, firm,
determined never to permit the government to be destroyed."
Among all the notable events of a national character that have hap-
pened on this eventful spot none have been so thrilling, so inspiring to
patriotism and so instructive to all posterity as this reception to and speech
by our noble Douglas.
In 1864 the National Democratic Convention assembled in Chicago,
meeting on the twenty-ninth of August. George B. McClellan was
nominated at this convention. The citizens were unduly alarmed at the
approach of this meeting; they feared that the Southern prisoners of war
confined in Camp Douglas would make a demonstration to escape, and,
succeeding, burn the city, or do some other desperate thing. At this
remote day, it would probably be difficult to find one who would admit
that he thought any political party assembled in National Convention,
would be silly enough to invoke or permit such a demonstration, even if it
could control it. But at that time it was thought necessary to bring an
additional military force to the city to protect it from the National Demo-
cratic Convention, which nominated so harmless a man as George B.
McClellan.
On May 2oth, 1868, the convention which nominated Ulysses S. Grant
for the Presidencv, assembled in Chicago.
In the Fall of 1872 an event which, perhaps, may be termed national,
occurred in the appearance of Patrick H. Gilmore, with a band, to give a
concert in the newly erected depot of the Lake Shore and Michigan
Southern Railroad company. The new. and beautiful depot of this road
had been completed, and Mr. Gilmore who had achieved notoriety a year
or two previous, by conducting what was known as a Peace Jubilee in
Boston, in which about all the bands in creation were employed, arranged
to give a concert within the structure. At the time Mr. Gilmore was of
national renown, and deserves to have his performances noted, although
the most important thing really was that a magnificent depot had been
built upon the ruins of the great fire.
In 1860, through the public spirited efforts of John Wentworth —
342 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
then Mayor of the city — the Prince of Wales was induced to visit Chicago
on his tour through the country. This event was made the most of, and
the Prince was entertained in a style that would have done credit to a
much older municipality.
In the month of September, 1878, one of the grandest firemen's
processions that ever paraded in any city was witnessed in our streets.
Companies were here from all the main sections of the country, and the
line of march was thronged with our citizens and adorned with our beauti-
ful women. Rutherford B. Hayes, President of the United States, was
in the procession, and this was the only occasion on which the sixteenth
President ever appeared before our whole people.
November, 1879, was the month in which Ulysses S. Grant, ex-Presi-
dent of the nation, was received in Chicago, after his tour around the
world. General Grant had deserved well of his countrymen. He had led
their armies to victory, and had been President for two consecutive terms.
In his travels abroad he had been received as no other American ever was.
Whatever might have been the motive for this foreign adulation, it is not
the place here to inquire. He came home to meet the gratitude of a peo-
ple whose country and homes he had saved, and in addition, to receive
the plaudits of those who think that a -man who has dined with a king or
a prince, should be a consecrated idol. The former — who were largely
in the majority — and the latter, who obscured their minority by their
enthusiasm, co-operated to make the reception of General Grant in Chicago
an event which will never be forgotten while a tongue remains to tell or
a page of history to relate the grandeur of the scene. The city was
decked in holiday attire; business was suspended; the streets were crowded;
windows were filled with the elite of the city and the country, and in the
evening the prominent business buildings were elegantly illuminated. The
entire city was devoted to seeing General Grant.
The Summer of 1880 was a memorable one as a season of national
gatherings. First came the National Republican Convention, which
assembled in June. The Exposition building had been prepared for this
assemblage, and room was provided for about nine thousand people. Chi-
cago partook of the excitement which the country was experiencing, some
time before the gathering of the "clans," but she had no conception of
the intense excitement which she was to endure, until after the assembling
of the convention, or more properly speaking, after the delegates had
arrived. Never in the political history of the country had there been
such bitter antagonism in a party between the friends of candidates for the
Presidency, as was exhibited in this contest for the nomination of a party
standard bearer. Ex-President Grant, James G. Blaine, John Sher-
man, George F. Edmunds and Elihu B. Washburne, were the principal can-
didates. The friends of each candidate deemed it wisdom to abuse the other
candidates, or the one which happened to be most in the way of the suc-
cess of a favorite, with a license that even the opposite party would scarcely
dare claim. Mass meetings in the interests of the different aspirants, were
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 343
held on the night previous to the assembling of the convention and a
torrent of abuse poured out upon them all. General Grant, whom a whole
people had applauded a few months previous, was painted as the most
corrupt and inefficient executive that ever sat in the Presidential Chair.
Mr. Blaine and Mr. Sherman were villainously traduced; and all were
slandered by their own household! The record of such proceedings is
one of the shadows that mar the really brilliant character of the human
race, and attributes to professional politics a shame that drives thousands
of conscientious American citizens from participating in political contests.
However, the convention assembled, and the excitement increased. Ex-
President Grant had the support of the best political managers of the
party, among whom were Senator Conkling, of New York, Senator
Donald Cameron, of Pennsylvania, and Senator Logan, of Illinois. To
those outside of professional politics, it appeared that General Grant was
absolutely sure of the nomination. His support was about three hundred
and nine votes against all the balance, and although it stood at that figure
for a length of time that must be described as days, it seemed as if such
able managers as had his interests in charge must eventually succeed.
This, however, was a mistake. After nearly a week's contest, General
James A. Garfield, of Ohio — who was not a candidate at all — received the
nomination. General Chester A. Arthur, of New York, was nominated
for the office of Vice President.
Following this convention came the National Convention of the
Greenback party, which assembled in the Exposition building directly
after the adjournment of the Republican Convention, and continued in
session until Saturday morning, holding an all-night session on the night
previous, during which they nominated General James B. Weaver, of Iowa,
for President, and E. J. Chambers, of Texas, for Vice President.
Then came the twenty-first triennial conclave of the Knights Templar,
which surpassed anything ever held in the city. The conclave was in-
augurated on the fourteenth of August, and continued through the week.
It was estimated that five hundred thousand people visited Chicago on this
occasion. The hotels were crowded, boarding houses were crowded, and
every room that was for rent was occupied. The Lake Park was covered
with tents, which were filled with Templars and their ladies. The parade
was the finest display ever made in America. Between ten and fifteen
thousand Knights were in line, with their banners and elegant uniforms.
Chicago had the right to feel proud of such a demonstration. The success
of the conclave was largely due to Norman T. Gassette, the Sir Knight
who was chairman of the committee which had charge of the arrangements.
344
CHAPTER XXIII.
THE LEADING SECRET SOCIETIES.
To give an accurate description of individual lodges and branches of
the great orders which are termed secret societies, would necessarily imply
a familiarity with all the organizations, which few men possess, and the
editor of this volume is not among that few. Such a minute description,
however, would be interesting only to the comparative few who might
belong to the lodge described. A general description would, on the con-
trary, be of interest to even opponents of secret organizations. In a vol-
ume entitled the "Treasm-es of Science, History and Literature," written
by Moses Folsom, and published at Chicago by Moses Warren, we find
a very accurate description of the societies which we shall here mention,
and we adopt it with some minor alterations :
FREEMASONRY.
"Great antiquity is claimed for this order. It is said to have had its
origin in the ' ancient mysteries,' yet well-informed Masons date its active
beginning only from the building of King Solomon's temple. The priests
of Dionysus (Bacchus), in Asia Minoij, having, it is alleged, devoted them-
selves to architectural pursuits, established a society of builders, styled by
ancient writers 'The Fraternity of Dionysian Architects.' To this society
was confided the privilege of erecting temples and public buildings. To
facilitate business and government they were divided into bands or lodges,
each of which was governed by a master and two wardens. The existence
of this order in Tyre, at the time of the building of the temple, is thought
probable; and Hiram, a widow's son, of that city was selected by Solomon
to superintend his workmen. The building of the temple gave a great
impetus to architecture. Upon the completion of the beautiful structure,
the workmen dispersed to extend their knowledge and renew their labors
in other lands.
During the first sixteen centuries of the Christian era, according to
the advocates of the great antiquity of Masonry, bands of artisans, under
the name of 'Free and Accepted Masons,' roamed over Europe and Asia
for the purpose of erecting churches and other public edifices; and many
of the grand old cathedrals of the mother lands stand to-day as monu-
ments of their skill. During the early part of the eighteenth century the
order gradually changed from operative to speculative masonry, as it now
exclusively stands. Grand lodges were established in nearly every Euro-
pean country during the early years of the last century, and to-day the
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 345
order is the strongest and most cosmopolitan in existence, embracing nearly
every nationality.
When and where the order of Masonry was first introduced into the
United States appears to be a matter of some doubt, even among the best
informed of the fraternity; and the fact that, prior to the year 1717, lodges
were not compelled to keep any regular record, leaves no authentic data
whereby to trace its origin. It is generally conceded, however, that
Masonry in the United States dates from the year 1733, when Anthony,
Lord Viscount Montague, grand master of England, on application of
several brethren residing in New England, appointed and constituted
Henry Price as provincial grand master over all the lodges in New England,
who, on the thirtieth of July, 1733, constituted the first grand lodge of
Freemasons on the American continent. This was known as St. John's
grand lodge, which title it retained until it was united, in 1792, with the
grand lodge founded by the Earl of Dalhousie, grand master of Scotland,
of which General Joseph Warren, who fell at the battle of Bunker Hill,
was the first grand master. Henry Price was a successful merchant of
Boston, and is generally looked upon as the father of Masonry in the
United States. The order rapidly spread, and before the end of the last
century a number of States boasted of their grand lodges and grand com-
mancleries.
Masonry has its foundation in what is commonly called the ' Blue
Lodge,' consisting of three degrees — Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft
and Master Mason. During the last two hundred years not less than one
hundred rites or systems have sprung up in various parts of the world, but
without permanent existence. Of these the most conspicuous are as fol-
lows:
The York Rite, which takes its name from the city of York, England,
where, in 926, as is claimed, the first grand lodge of that country was
organized; and it is also the most extensively diffused. To the three primi-
tive degrees have been added in modern times other degrees, viz. : Mark
Master, Past Master, Most Excellent Master and Royal Arch, collectively
known as the Chapter. The High Priest, Royal Master and Select Master
compose the Council; High Priest is not strictly a degree, but is an
honorary feature conferred on the first officer of the Chapter. The Com-
mandery is composed of three degrees, viz.: Knights of the Red Cross,
Knights of Malta and Knights Templar.
The Scotch Rite, more familiarly known as the Ancient and Accepted
Scottish Rite, has thirty-three degrees, and next to York Masonry is the
strongest. The three primitive degrees constitute the Symbolic Lodge.
Then comes the Lodge of Perfection with eleven degrees, viz. : Secret
Master, Perfect Master, Intimate Secretary, Provost and Judge, Intendant
of the Building, Elected Knight of the Nine, Illustrious Elect of the Fifteen,
Sublime Knight Elected of the Twelve, Grand Master Architect, Knight
of the Ninth Arch or Royal Arch of Solomon, and Grand Elect Perfect
and Sublime Mason. The Council of the Princes of Jerusalem follows.
346 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
with two degrees — Knight of the East or Sword, and Prince of Jerusalem.
The Chapter of Rose-Croix is next, with two degrees — Knight of the East
and West, and Sovereign Prince of Rose-Croix. Then follows the
Consistory of Princes of the Royal Secret, with fourteen degrees — Grand
Pontiff, Venerable Grand Master of all Symbolic Lodges, Noachite or
Prussian Knight, Knight of the Royal Axe or Prince of Libanus, Chief
of the Tabernacle, Prince of the Tabernacle, Knight of the Brazen Ser-
pent, Prince of Mercy or Scotch Trinitarian, Sovereign Commander of
the Temple, Knight of the Sun or Prince Adept, Knight of St. Andrew
or Patriarch of the Crusades, Knight of Kadosh, Grand Inspector Inquis-
itor General, and Sublime Prince of the Royal Secret. The Supreme
Council has one degree — the thirty-third — Sovereign Grand Inspector
General.
Adoptive Masonry is a name given to certain degrees invented for
ladies who have claims upon the order, through their male relatives being
members. The American Adoptive Rite, known as the order of the
Eastern Star, consists of five degrees, as follows: Jephthah's daughter, or
the daughter's degree; Ruth, or the widow's degree; Esther, or the wife's
degree; Martha, or the sister's degree; and Electa, or the benevolent
degree.
The principles and objects of Masonry are briefly set forth in the fol-
lowing extract:
Masonry inculcates Morality, Brotherly Love and Charity, but the greatest of
these is Charity — not that Charity which vaunteth itself and consists simply in giving,
but that Charity which gives with humility, which deals gently with a brother's failings,
which forgives while it admonishes, and chastens while it loves; which relieves the dis-
tresses of a needy brother, comforts the widow and orphan, and binds up the wounds
of the afflicted.
The doctrines taught by Masonry are a belief in God, the immortality of the soul,
and the resurrection of the body. Thes.e are strongly enforced by symbols, and ex-
plained in a manner known only to the initiates. The human heart dwells and delights
in ceremony and mystery, and it is an established fact that nothing conveys information
so readily, or impresses it so vividly on the human mind, as symbolism. The Latin
Church understood this fully, and has exhausted her ingenuity in forming a ritual which
should attract the eye and please the senses. The most popular teachers of the day are
the lecturers, especially when they are aided by illustrations.
With its simple creed, Masonry goes quietly on her mission and unfurls her ban-
ner to the human race wherever it is found, whether in Afric's torrid zone or Green-
land's icy mountains; whether in the sunny isles of the far Eastern Archipelago, or the
more temperate zone of our own beloved country. No clime, no race, no color, no re-
ligion is exempted. None save the atheist and bondman are refused. All people have
been and can be her votaries, and around her sacred altars are to be found the Christian
and the Jew, the Hindoo and the Chinese, the Mohammedan and the savage. In her
mystic circle all distinctions vanish and all meet upon the level. Neither birth, nor
rank, nor genius, nor religion, nor politics has any preference there; but gathered
around one common altar, all can subscribe to her simple articles of faith, and join in
one united prayer and praise to the Great Architect of the universe, our Father
in Heaven, who is the same yesterday, to-day and forever.
ODD FELLOWSHIP.
A love of mystery, and a veneration for antiquity, has induced most
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 347
associations to claim an origin traceable to the remotest ages. The greatest
exertion of tradition in behalf of this order was to make Adam the founder,
as no doubt for one short while our great forefather was an odd fellow.
Another pretension is that the order was founded among the Jewish priest-
hood by Moses and Aaron. Other legends ascribe the origin to the
Romans, Goths, Huns, Moors — but these proofless stories have been rejected
by the grand lodge of the United States.
The positive historical record of the order shows that in the eighteenth
century there existed in London lodges of mechanics and laborers, calling
themselves 'Ancient and Honorable Loyal Odd Fellows.' Their meet-
ings were convivial, and one penny a week was contributed to a fund for
relief of the poor. In 1813, at Manchester, the order was reformed, its
convivial character dropped, and the name chosen: ' Independent Order
of Odd Fellows.' The ' Manchester Unity ' now remains the main body
of the British Odd Fellows, with five hundred thousand members.
In 1806 a lodge of Odd Fellows was instituted in New York city known
.as the Shakespeare lodge, from its place of meeting, ' The Shakespeare
House.' The life of this lodge, however, was very short. In 1816 the Prince
Regent lodge, also in New York, was established. This lodge, like its
predecessor, was short lived, and it remained for Thomas Wildey, a Balti-
more coach trimmer, to lay the foundations of the order in the United
States so broad and deep that half a century has attested their strength
and structure. Mr. Wildey was a native of England, and came to America
in 1818. On April 26th, 1819, with four other persons, he instituted
Washington lodge, No. i, at Baltimore, Maryland. A lodge was founded
at Boston in 1820, and one at Philadelphia in 1821.
The history of Odd Fellowship in America, commencing with the
little Baltimore lodge, has been the record of a triumphal march. To-day
its membership is counted by scores of thousands, and there is scarcely a
hamlet in the United States where the three golden links of the Odd Fel-
lows are not displayed.
The order is organized in a manner similar to the Freemasons. The
primary body is the subordinate lodge, which derives its power from a
charter granted by the grand lodge. They make their own laws, manage
their own pecuniary affairs, requiring dues from their members, to the
amount generally of from three to ten dollars per year. The sick receive
a weekly allowance, and a stated sum is assigned for the burial expenses
of a member. In due season a member may receive the first three degrees
of the order by paying certain sums. On the wives of the members of the
highest degree can be conferred the degree of Rebekah.
The elective officers of a subordinate lodge are the noble grand, who
presides, the vice-grand, the treasurer, and the permanent and recording
secretaries. A person who has filled the office of noble grand for one
year, is styled past grand; and the past grands form the grand lodge of
the State; or it may be formed of delegates chosen for that purpose. The
grand lodge derives a revenue from charters and a percentage on the reve-
348 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
nues of subordinate lodges. The grand lodge of the United States is
composed of representatives elected biennially by the State grand lodges.
Encampments were unknown until the institution of Jerusalem en-
campment, No. i, at Baltimore, on June I4th, 1827, with Thomas Wildey
as presiding officer. The three degrees had, however, been regularly
conferred on members of the grand lodges. The titles of the degrees are
Patriarchal, Golden Rule, and Royal Purple; and the elective officers of
a subordinate encampment are chief patriarch, senior and junior wardens,
treasurer, and scribe. Only Scarlet members of subordinate lodges in
good standing can become members of an encampment.
From less than half a score of men in the humble walks of life the
order has grown up to a great army, and its finances from zero to millions
per annum. In fifty years the institution has gathered together as many
millions of dollars and consecrated it to purposes of benevolence. It has
followed and laid decently and respectably in the grave more than forty
thousand men. It has ministered at the bedside of more than five hundred
thousand sick brothers. It has visited and relieved more than thirty-five
thousand widowed families; and though unable to give the total num-
ber of orphans cared for, yet in Maryland alone, where the order is much
cherished, during this period two thousand seven hundred and forty-four
children have been in charge of the committee on education.
KNIGHTS OF PYTHIAS.
The Order of the Knights of Pythias is founded upon the time-
honored story of Damon and Pythias, and seeks to carry into practice the
teachings of their wonderful friendship. The story is as follows:
Damon and Pythias, or Phintias, were two noble Pythagoreans of
Syracuse, who have been remembered as models of faithful friendship.
Pythias, having been condemned to death by Dionysius, the tyrant of
Syracuse, begged to be allowed to go home, for the purpose of arranging
his affairs, Damon pledging his own life for the reappearance of his friend.
Dionysius consented, and Pythias returned just in time to save Damon
from death. Struck by so noble an example of mutual affection, the
tyrant pardoned Pythias, and desired to be admitted into their sacred
friendship.
The order began with the organization of Washington lodge, No. i,
at Washington, District of Columbia, February I9th, 1864. The ritual was
prepared by J. H. Rathbone. The order had its origin in America, and
claims no antiquity, other than that the principles binding its members
together began with human life. The object is to unite men in a closer bond
of fraternity than the everyday affairs of life seem to furnish, to relieve the
sufferings of a brother, succor him in distress, watch at his bedside in sick-
ness, minister to his necessities, follow him to the grave, and care for those
left behind. To aid in accomplishing these ends, the order is beneficial —
that is, weekly benefits are paid to those of its members who are sick>
varying in different localities, according to the dues paid. To organize a
lodge, nine or more persons are necessary. None of the petitioners need
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 349
be members of the order, but must be of sound bodily health, and believe
in a Supreme Being.
This, like other secret orders, does not interfere with man's relations
to the church, family or state, but fully recognizes liberty of thought on all
social, political and religious questions. The growth of the order has
been rapid, and it now ranks among the permanent societies of the world.
It will continue to be cherished* and sustained as long as men are animated
by the fundamental principles of 'Friendship, Charity and Benevolence."'
Perhaps the following extracts from an address delivered some years
since by the editor, before an order which combines all the features of the
other secret organizations, and inculcates the principles of total abstinence
besides, may convey more fully the lofty and ennobling mission of our best
secret organizations:
We have assembled again, and have invited our friends to meet with
us around the holy altar of Truth, of Virtue, of Fraternity and of Honor.
The cares, the turmoils, the enmities of life we have left at the portals to
this sacred place. Beneath the influences which surround us here the
friendship of hearts grows warmer and stronger, and hate and malice
are melted into reverence and regard. The weapons of personal strife are
here sheathed, and their sharp edges forever blunted by the Templar's
solemn vow. The Templar who would make this spot, consecrated to
the eternal principles of love and harmony — this sacred avenue to peace
of heart, purity of soul and to God — the arena of personal contests, is
criminally unmindful of the solemn obligations which he has voluntarily
taken, and which have been recorded in Heaven. That we are not entirely
free from this and other imperfections and annoyances is possible, and
probably true. Earth is not perfect; humanity is depraved. Evil hearts
may throb unobserved amidst the fundamental purity of the Temple of
Honor, and within the shadow of our altar, modestly bearing the light
of the world, the hope of immortality and the unerring sign-board to the
glories of a Temple not made with hands. Among the beautiful flowers
which adorn the banks of the silvery stream by which we stroll in this
secluded life, the ungainly thorn and disfiguring thistle may, in the mys-
terious providence of God, germinate, and for awhile defy every attempt
to exterminate. Some of the pillars of our structure may be imperfect
and unadorning, and their defects concealed by the beauty and marked
stability of their associate supports, but they must soon bend and crumble
into obscurity beneath the crushing weight of principle. Had we the
powers of the Infinite, we might behold the tare and the cockle among
the grain, even before they had sprung above the surface into life. But
the secret recesses of the heart are penetrated by the Eye of the Eternal
alone. We cannot read the soul's silent thought or measure correctly its
sincerity or its treachery. He who lays off his outer garment and pre-
sents himself as divested of all deceit, here outwardly consecrating himself
to our cardinal principles — Truth, Love, Purity and Fidelity, must, until
time reveals his unworthiness, be honored with the sacred name of brother.
35°
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
But the grips, the signals and the signet do not make a Templar. He
alone is our brother whose heart holds this three- fold and universal princi-
ple— Love to his God, his country and his fellow man. To the soul alive
with these sentiments, and to such only, we bid a thrice welcome. Our
mission is not confined to the narrow limits of ourselves. We are reminded
constantly of the unfortunates of earth. The bright light which from
our altar illumes our pathway reveals to us the tears of the broken-hearted
and the despair of the perishing. While yet in darkness and in tempest,
we approach such with sympathetic tenderness, and bear the glad message
of our Master, " peace, be still." Gently we lead them from the dark
caverns of vice at a time when ruin and rescue are alike concealed in the
future, and reveal to them a clear sky in which shines a lovely star of
promise. Beneath the warmth of that star the energies of stupefied man-
hood are quickened into vitality, and the exalted destiny of immortal
man is beautifully pictured to the vision of the reviving soul, filled with
rapture, as it beholds the streams of love and sympathy bubbling from
human hearts and playing in the starlight to nurture the drooping flowers
of Hope. Amidst this enchantment, man, in the infancy of his noble
thoughts and virtuous aspirations, cannot conceive the nature and grandeur
of his entire surroundings. But let him gaze upon the charming scene
until the sight achieves power by use, when new stars of increased brill-
iancy and magnitude will appear in the firmament to light up the uncertain
future, and he will at last perceive that the brightest and sweetest and
safest guiding star glitters in the Temple of Honor. When he beholds
this, and feels that joyous, life-giving and glorious are its rays, and real-
izes that virtue binds them round her temples, and calls her followers in
ways of pleasantness and paths of peace, he will seek our altar and become
indeed a Templar. Then may you intrust him with your fortune, your
confidence, all that is most sacred, and he will keep all inviolate. Ever
truthful, and faithful to his solemn vow's, the tongue of slander not only
never plays between his lips, but he commands its silence when in others
it would tarnish the fair name of his brother. He is open, honest, fearless
and manly. Let him who wears the Templar's badge measure himself
by this simple standard, and if he fall short, listen to a voice within him
uttering the awful truth, "there is perjury upon thy soul."
I would like, stranger, to lead you to-night amidst the magnificence
of the Templar's inheritance. We would stroll through fields of Love,
with their verdant lawns, their sparkling streamlets and delightful fragrance,
fanned ever by the sweetest zephyrs, lighted by the soft radiance of
Heaven's divinest attribute, and echoing among their flowery hills the
perpetual melody of angelic song. Love, with smiling eye and generous
sympathy, would meet us in every path, offering us pleasant gifts and
alluring us nearer to our fellow-man and to God. From the hill-tops the
music of birds would mingle with the sacred chorus of invisible choristers,
and Love's harmonious strains would fill the valleys of the fields, and re-
sound through the arches of the universe. The rippling brooks and
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 351
bubbling springs which moisten the budding and blooming grandeur of
this enchanted spot of earth would bear upon their glistening surface the
joys, the smiles, the divinity of Love. The gentle breezes would stir
the green foliage of the forest into song, and on the notes the enraptured
ear would catch the sentiment, sublime, yet beautiful in simplicity, God-
like, yet dwelling with men, the bond of hearts and sweetener of life,
the glory of heaven and the joy of earth, is pure and holy Love. Amidst
these exhaustless and eternal beauties we would fill the soul with rever-
ence for the Fountain-head; gather buds which swell here and bloom in
Paradise; water from the crystal streams, the dormant virtues of our
hearts, and more like Him, in whose image we are, pass from the splendors
we had beheld, to walk in the gardens of Purity. Here angels would bid
us welcome, and to contemplate how pure and beautiful even earth can be.
The fragrant rose, in its garb of beauty, smiling in its pure and tender
nature; the delicate violet, in its purple robes, blooming in its peculiar
loveliness; the sweet lily which flourishes unbidden and uncultured by the
winding pathway, would each bear upon their tiny leaves the teachings
of angels and the will of God — "man, be pure." The green sod, the
garden's bloom, the brightness of the noonday's burning sun, the air which
with gratitude we breathed, the music of the mountain streams leaping
in the short distance from hill to vale, and the roar of majestic ocean,
borne to us upon the breath of God amidst the splendor of the scene,
would all bear the holy impress of Purity. Here would we loiter until
the mantle of evening had shrouded the light of day, and be further
taught and charmed by the purity of the paradise of stars. Each twinkling
orb would be a chapter in the vast volume from the author, God, from
some of which we should learn to cultivate a purer reverence for him
who gave us life, and her who bore us, or, to purify our hearts, from which
then purer tears would flow to water their tombs and keep their memories
fresh. Here the brother would learn the sacredness of a brother and
sister's relation, and would ever after guard the tender kindred bud with
and in the sweetest purity, and the husband would be taught that two
crystal streams which at the mountain's base unite, should not be purer
than the marriage union.
From these walks, in which the Templar has been taught lessons
of Purity, you would go forth an instrument to gladden the e^rth, a tree of
life and health whose leaves would heal the nations of your race, and
ready to brighten the dull grass and fading flowers and drooping souls of
earth with sweet refreshing drops of purity.
With the remembrance of such lessons I should scarcely need remind
you of the heart's duty of Fidelity, by pointing you to the pictures of
that attribute which are ever suspended upon the walls of our Temple for
study and admiration. Here hangs the significant picture of fidelity to
self, which careful study reveals, signifies fidelity to God, to country and
the human race. There is the picture of fidelity to Truth — the smoke, the
flames, the agonies of the dying martyr, and beneath it is written, "what
352 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
evidence have you ever given of the heart's fidelity to principle?" Yonder
is the picture of proud America's Washington, spurning the proffered
bribes of the enemies of liberty, and in the grandeur of his noble man-
hood clearing a path to national freedom and his own immortal fame.
Read upon that picture and contemplate its significance, Sons of America,
what if he had been unfaithful? Now behold a simple picture, but the
loveliest that graces our halls, or commands the admiration and reverence
of the world — a rude cross, the life blood trickling from its precious bur-
den, whose fidelity prompts the expression: "Father, thy will be done."
Fallen man, darest thou think of treachery, were it possible, there? And
now, before passing on, observe this picture of violated Fidelity. A man
rises to the proud position of a conqueror; the gentle spirit of his fond
wife his guiding star and guardian angel; but in a moment of mad ambi-
tion he casts from him the faithful companion of his humbler days, tears
asunder the tender cords that have bound their souls together, and in her
presence leads to the altar the heartlessness of proud royalty. From that
hour the pathway of Napoleon was downward, and upon his soul fell the
vengeance of a just God, so terrible in its effects, that to remember his
fate is to see God's own warning to the unfaithful. Briefly, you would be
taught in these observations the purest fidelity to self, to country, to human-
ity and to God.
The closing of our doors upon the world must not be considered an
evidence of selfishness. The life and grandeur of our noble Order is the
truth it teaches — "none liveth to himself alone." We better ourselves to
enable us to better others. We work the magnificent machinery of our
Order to benefit, to some degree, even the millions whose hearts are too
vile ever to throb within our Inner Temple. It is our proud satisfaction
to know that many an aching heart has been soothed through our instru-
mentality, without ever knowing whence came the healing balm. None
can drink of our crystal waters without reading upon the Gilded Fountain
that sends them forth, his duty to bear the Torch of Love into the dark
by-ways, to lead the fallen from vice to virtue's ways. To seek out and
soothe the pains of hearts misfortune hath bowed down, is gilded above
every archway and on every wall of our majestic Temple. Like the silent
ray of light, the Templar is bidden to be ready to penetrate the darkest
recess whenever the slightest opportunity shall offer. Upon every step
of the spiral stairway ascending through increasing splendors to our Tem-
ple's dome is written: "Thou art commissioned by Heaven to gather from
the lowly walks of life brilliants for its diadem." And no soul can breathe
the air of this enchanted sphere, laden with the sweet perfume of heavenly
graces, nor look within the spacious halls and on the winding corridors of
our hallowed structure, where the loveliest of immortality sings the glad
song of its redemption, without exclaiming: "God bless this consolidated
mind, pledged to the triumph of temperance and virtue!"
To view the vast caravan of immortal souls, recruited from the haunts
of vice and darkness of despair, now rejoicing in the promises of their
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS, 353
God, as through the falling showers of Divine mercy they behold the
beauteous colors of the rainbow traced upon the heavens, and starting
from the very base of our altar heavenward, is reward enough for con-
secrating ourselves to the cause of humanity and God. But this is not
the Templar's only compensation. Angels strew his own pathway with
fadeless flowers, and the music of the heavenly spheres bursts on his ear
and charms the soul into sweet forgetfulness of its own pains. He looks
beyond this vale of tears, through the storms, the turmoils and miseries
of life into the brightness of eternal day, and there beholds the reward of
the faithful.
The Temple of Honor is the faithful ally of the Christian church.
To fit man for heaven is the grand object of all our secret and magnificent
work. We charm him to the vestibule of our sanctuary of Temperance
where we meet him with the open Bible and bid him build his future hopes
upon the promises it contains. Thence we lead him along the flowery
paths of knowledge, where he meets with the injunction, " man, know
thyself," and by the light of such rare knowledge purge the soul of all
impurities. Now we halt him at the crystal spring, in which he reads
that the Fountain Head of nature's sparkling drink is at the Throne of
God, and here we ask his promise of devotion henceforth and forever to
the holy cause of Temperance. Next we pluck the swelling, tender bud
of fraternal friendship, moistened by the dews of heavenly influence, and
as he holds this delicate product of our garden in his hand, we teach him
that the warmth of his own heart must burst it into bloom, or it must
wither and die; warning him of the danger of shipwreck upon the ocean
of life, unless his course be lighted by the sympathy of friendly hearts,
we lead him to our altar. Here we draw aside the curtain which veils
our mysteries from the outer world, and the Sun of Truth pours its pene-
trating beams into his soul to burn away the dross of unbelief, to reveal
to him that God is Truth, and teach him to be truthful. Another step,
and Love's sweet effulgence mingles with the light of truth, and playing
upon his heart and on his pathway, he reads in the charming brilliancy:
" Love thy neighbor as thyself." Now we conduct him into the sunshine
of Purity, that he may look upon the verdure of the fields — the loveliness
of the blooming flowers, and listen to the warblings of the innocent
birds, that in contemplating the innocence and purity of nature he may
be reminded that "the pure in heart see God;" and to complete the circuit
of our altar we uncover before him the beauties of Fidelity, picturing to
him the peace and quiet of the faithful heart and the remorse of the false;
then opening the word of Eternal Life we bid him read, " the faithful
shall drink of the waters of life." These are some of the beauties which
man beholds as he journeys through our Temple. But all that he beholds
is not beautiful. We should be unfaithful, did we not lead him from the
sunshine into valleys of darkness that he might learn to pity the unfortu-
nate; in paths of humility that he might learn his own insignificance;
through waters of affliction and furnaces of fire to teach him fortitude
354 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
and faith, and lastly to the grave, the place appointed for all the
living.
All that we have shown him — the buds and the flowers, the waters
and landscapes, the mountains and valleys, the sunshine and darkness, the
rude and the lovely, have been intended to prepare him to look calmly
into the cold and silent tomb. And here we stand with him amidst the
solemn silence of death, midway between this and the life to come,
the past realized, the future a mystery, the winds moaning a solemn
requiem about us and the mournful cadence at last dying away into awful
silence, the green grass at our feet bowing as if with reverence, the sun
of heaven hiding its bright face behind the passing clouds, and amidst the
solemnity of the scene we unbury the grinning skeleton that sleeps be-
neath, to which we point and whisper:
" Life is real — life is earnest,
And the grave is not its goal,
'Dust thou art — to dust returnest'
Was not spoken of the soul."
And while the tears trickle down the cheek of our companion in evidence
that our efforts have not been entirely in vain, we grasp his hand and
bid him:
"So live, that when your summons comes
To join the innumerable caravan which moves,
To that mysterious realm
Where each shall take his chamber in the silent halls of death
Thou go not like the quarry slave at night
Scourged to his dungeon. But with unfaltering step
Approach thy grave, like one who draws the
Drapery of his couch about him, and lies down
To pleasant dreams."
If this is a correct description of the teachings of secret societies —
and it is — we think that they must be accorded the merit of being a pro-
moter of human happiness and usefulness. While the particular order
referred to in the above extracts, is a total abstinence organization, all
secret societies teach temperance and require its practice. But in addition
to such teachings, the practical charity of Masonry, Odd Fellowship,
Knights of Pythias, and other orders, which imitate them, is something
which must commend them. The amount of money annually expended
by these orders in the city of Chicago, in relieving distressed brothers,
burying the dead, assisting the widow and educating the orphan, is simply
princely. Every society of the character of Masonry and Odd Fellow-
ship must necessarily lessen the burdens of the tax payer. But this is not
all. The sympathy and assistance which is manifested in the sick room
is one of the most beautiful exhibitions of the better side of human char-
acter that the world ever sees; and upon the whole, we think that if those
who honestly think that these orders are useless organizations, would be-
come more thoroughly acquainted with their characteristics, they would
be led to modify their opinions.
Masonry and Odd Fellowship were the pioneer secret orders in Chi-
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 3^
cago, and their history dates back to very nearly the beginning of Chicago.
At present Masonry is represented in the city by the following lodges:
Oriental, No. 33; Garden City, No. 141; Wabansia, No. 160; Ger-
mania, No. 182; Wm. B. Warren, No. 209; Cleveland, No. 211; Blaney,
No. 271; Accordia, No. 277; Ashlar, No. 308; Dearborn, No. 310; Kil-
winning, No. 311; Blair, No. 393; Thomas J. Turner, No. 409; Mithra,
No. 410; Hesperia, No. 411; Landmark, No. 422; Chicago, No. 437;
Pleiades, No. 478; Home, No. 508; Covenant Lodge, No. 526; Lessing,
No. 557; National, No. 596; Union Park, No. 610; Lincoln Park, No.
611; Keystone, No. 639; Apollo, No. 642 ; D. C. Cregier, No. 643; South
Park, No. 662; Herder, No. 669; Waldech, No. 674; D. A. Cashman,
No. 686; Englewood, No. 690; Richard Cole, No. 697; St. Andrews,
No. 703; Lumberman's, No. 717; Golden Rule, No. 726; Harbor, No.
731; Lakeside, No. 769.
Royal Arch Mariners — U. S. Premier Lodge; Triton, No. 3; Rosi-
crucian Society of the United States of America (under England and
Scotland, open to Master Masons, Literary and Philosophical — Member-
ship strictly limited to 144; 16 only in the IX°, 32 in the VIII0, etc., etc.)
Organized January 28th, 1878, Chicago.
Royal Arch Chapters — LaFayette, No. 2; Washington, No. 43; Cor-
inthian, No. 69; Wiley M. Egan, No. 126; Lincoln Park, No. 117; Chicago,
No. 127; York, No. 148; Pairview, No. 161; Elwood M. Jarrett, No. 176.
Knights Templar — Apollo, No. i; Chicago, No. 19; St. Bernard,
No. 35.
Grand Imperial Council of Knights of the Red Cross of Rome and
Constantine and Knights of the Holy Sepulcher — St. John's Conclave,
No. i; Lincoln Park Conclave, No. 123; Chicago Conclave, No. Si.
Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite — Oriental Sovereign Consistory
S. P. R. S. 32 ° ; Gourgas Sovereign Chapter of Rose Croix D. H. R. D. M.
18°; Van Rensselaer Grand Lodge of Perfection, 14°; Chicago Council
Princes of Jerusalem, 16°; Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic
Shrine.
Adoptive Masonry — Miriam Chapter, No. I ; Lady Washington
Chapter, No. 28; Butler Chapter, No. 36; Queen Esther Chapter, No. 41.
The following encampments and lodges of the Odd Fellows are now
in the city:
Encampments — Humboldt, Germania, Teutonia, Illinois, Apollo,
Chosen Friends', Excelsior (Uniformed), Chicago, Herman, Alexander.
Lodges — Duane, Chicago, Rainbow, 'Ellips, Home, Ellis, South Park,
New Chicago, Peabody, Rochambeau, Excelsior, Fort Dearborn, Lincoln
Park, Olympia, Southwestern, Northern Light, John G. Potts, Persever-
ence, Robert Blum, Harmonia, Hofnung, Garden City, Hutton, Templar,
First Swedish, Silver Link, Eintract, Humboldt Park, Washington, Union,
Goethe, Lily of the West, Douglas, Palm, Progress, Accordia, Palacky,
North Chicago, Northwestern, Syria, Brighton Park.
356
CHAPTER XXIV.
THE UNION STOCK YARDS.
Of all the many industries which have made Chicago famous and
wealthy, the live stock business at the Union Stock Yards is among the
most prominent. Controlled by some of the keenest business men in
the world, and some .of the most honorable withal, it is not surprising
that the commission trade at this point should not only have developed in
accordance with the natural advantages furnished by Chicago itself, but
that it should have grown even beyond the expectation which such advan-
tages would naturally arouse. So immense and varied, indeed, are the
operations here that a neglect to visit the yards is to miss a day's entertain-
ment of a peculiar but highly interesting character. The Union Stock
Yards are a city of themselves, and one of the peculiarities of the men
who transact business in them is that they are full of that vitality which
is, or is closely akin to, what the world calls magnetism. They are all
life and vigor, and there is something irresistible in the influence of their
voices and manners.
These Stock Yards were established in 1866, the company being
organized under a special charter granted by the legislature of Illinois,
which charter conferred upon the company all necessary powers and
privileges to construct, operate and maintain stock yards, to build and operate
railroads, and to exercise the right of eminent domain in furtherance of the
enterprise, with the following restrictions, however: "That all fees and
charges for freights, hotel bills, feeding, carrying, and everything done by
reason of the powers conferred by the charter, should be subject to any
general law that might be passed by the legislature of the State in refer-
ence to stock yards and railroads." One million of dollars was the amount
of capital stock authorized by the charter. This has since been increased
to four millions, and as an indication of the profitableness of the business,
it may be well to note that the stock sells at a premium of from fifty to
one hundred per cent. The cost of the establishment of the yards was
about one million, six hundred 'thousand dollars, which was raised as
follows: one million was paid in on capital stock; four hundred thousand
was borrowed on note and mortgage; one hundred and fifty thousand was
paid out of earnings, and one hundred thousand of a stock dividend in
lieu of a cash dividend.
During the first year of the organization of the company, there were
received at their yards three hundred and ninety thousand and seven head
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS, 357
of cattle, nine hundred and sixty-one thousand seven hundred and forty-six
head of hogs and two hundred and seven thousand nine hundred and
eighty-seven sheep. At the beginning of operations the prices established
were as follows: One dollar per bushel for corn, thirty dollars per ton for
hay, twenty-five cents per head yardage for cattle, and eight cents per
head for hogs and sheep. These charges seem somewhat exorbitant, but
at that time the company was compelled to pay from sixty to ninety cents
per bushel for corn, and sometimes as high as twenty-five dollars a ton
for hay; and then again the cost of the yards was very heavy, much
larger than was anticipated when the enterprise was first conceived. The
first report of the Board of Directors to their stockholders contains
the following: l-1 It is believed that the earnings will increase rapidly with
time, and that although the cost of the company's property has been much
greater than was originally estimated it would be, still its earnings for the
first year of its business (which it will be seen are about sixteen per cent,
above interest and the expense of management) have not been unsatis-
factory." The most of people would regard such a profit as exceedingly
satisfactory. The charges originally established, however, have never
been changed to any great extent in the history of these yards, a fact
which has produced two results — considerable dissatisfaction among stock-
men and enormous profits to the company.
In 1867 the receipts of live stock increased nearly fifty per cent.,
being two million, two hundred and seven thousand, six hundred and
sixty-six head. The president of the company in his report for this year
said: "The financial statement exhibits a safe and profitable investment.
The net earnings have been sufficient to keep the property in good repair,
and make such improvements as time will require, to lay aside a sinking
fund to pay off the bonded debt, or to meet the depreciation of buildings,
and at the same time to declare semi-annual dividends." The business of
the yards in 1868 was not much greater than that of the previous year,
only about a hundred thousand more head of stock being received in 1868
than there was in 1867, and the increase of business in 1869 over 1868 was
about in the same proportion. Indeed, from 1867 to 1870, both inclusive,
there was this annual gain of about one hundred thousand head. In 1871,
however, the receipts reached three million, two hundred and thirty-eight
thousand, one hundred and sixteen head; in 1872, four million, two hun-
dred and forty-six thousand, nine hundred and nine head; in 1873, five
million, three hundred and ninety thousand, nine hundred and twelve
hcv.d; in 1874, five million, four hundred and thirty-six thousand; in 1875,
five million, two hundred and fifty-one thousand, eight hundred and
seventy-one; in 1876, five million, six hundred and fifty thousand, eight
hundred and fifty-six; and in the subsequent years there has been a large
annual increase of business.
The company now owns three hundred and seventy acres
of valuable land with its valuable buildings; and it is indebted for its
fortune to the commission men, to whom we have already referred.
3^8 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
A writer in the DROVERS' JOURNAL makes this fact still plainer.
He says:
"It has been through the agency of the commission men that the class
of live stock men known as drovers have been brought into existence in
connection with the live stock trade here. These men reside in the coun-
try and are scattered all over the region of country that is tributary to
Chicago. Each drover has a particular district within which he operates
in a common way in making purchases of cattle, hogs or sheep, as the
case may be. Such purchases when made for the Chicago market are
commonly covered by the acceptance of draft or by a letter of credit on
the part of some live stock commission salesman or firm in Chicago, which
enables the drover to move his stock readily from the place of purchase
to market.
In addition to this kind of service rendered by the commission men
there have been plenty of instances where feeders in the country have
obtained loans of a few thousand dollars for one, two or three months on
good sized lots of cattle that they might be feeding in the country; and
we have known cases where men owning large farms in the country have
made arrangements with strong commission firms here to buy stock cattle
for them in the early part of the year, to be kept on grass during the entire
grazing season, when such cattle would be brought back to market, to be
sold by the same commission firm — this firm having advanced the money
to pay for such cattle in the first place, the former paying interest for the
use of the money during the time it had been in use in carrying the cattle
through the grazing season, and the commission firm getting two com-
missions besides interest on the money furnished. The acceptances of
commission men here upon shipments of stock from the country to this
market have always been a main factor in helping to bring forward the
hogs that have come here during every regular packing season since the live
stock commission business has been established here. The commission
men have at times been subjected to a good deal of trouble, loss and
inconvenience through this arrangement for making advances on ship-
ments of stock to come from the country. Sometimes the proceeds
of sale would fail to reach the acceptance given on account of such shipment;
the difference would often have to be charged to the shipper and would
have to stand so until he would have good luck through a future shipment.
We have known instances where commission men have run up accounts
of several thousand dollars against a shipper or drover in trying to sustain
him and have him come out sound while operating on this kind of princi-
ple. The commission men, under a well established rule, have uniformly
paid the proceeds of all sales of stock to the owners as soon as the bills
could be made out after the sale, although they might not be able to collect
from the purchaser for one, two or three days, and thousands of dollars
have been lost at one time or another by allowing buyers to take possession
of stock bought before it was paid for. We have' here referred to all
these matters for the purpose of showing the whole character of the agency
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 359
the live stock commission men have had in building up the live stock trade
of Chicago."
But this brief record of this great corporation's prosperity, wealth
and power, and of the enterprise of the men whose thought has illumined
the way of progress, suggests the real source of this city's magnificence
and influence — the fields and the husbandmen upon whom she lays tribute.
Our city and our nation have grown mightily. A little more than a hun-
dred years have left their impress upon our Republic. A garden has
been made to bloom in the midst of the wilderness, cities have arisen upon
the uninviting marshes, and the hum of industry has silenced the war-
whoop of the savage upon the broad prairies. The music of the spindle
mingles with the song of waters which a century ago trickled from the
hidden mountain-spring, and murmured through forests which civilized
man has never invaded. The glare of the smeiting-furnace, sifting treasure
from the native rock and coining wealth from the sands of the seashore,
streams out into the darkness of the night, and illumes the picture of our
national progress, until we pause in bewilderment and are half incredulous
as to the reality of our remarkable achievements. Penetrating our Hoosacs,
spanning our Mississippis, scaling our Sierra Nevadas, woven in intricate
net- work over our prairies, and uniting Maine to Mexico, and California
to New England, our eighty thousand miles of railroad speak loudly of
our enterprise and advancement. The locomotive breathes its hot, heavy
breath upon the piston rod, and moves like a thing of life over the conti-
nent, screaming iorth the claims of civilization amidst the silence of the
wild woodlands and the sand-storms of the trackless plains; the white
wings of our shipping shade our capacious harbors, and beat the breezes
of every sea and reflect the sunlight in every port. A world discerns
them as far as the eye can penetrate the azure of the ocean, and applauds
the grace with which they bear to foreign lands our cotton, flour, meat,
butter, hides, grain, gold, potash, tobacco, rice, and petroleum; girdling
the continent, and almost reaching into every hamlet our seventy tnousand
miles of telegraph flashes living thought, and simultaneously lights up
the whole nation with a blaze of intelligence. America places her lips to
the rocks of the seashore and whispers her wishes in flaming syllables
to all Europe, and is answered by the first wave that dashes on the beach.
Our budding men and women, exceeding in numbers eleven millions, are
being nurtured into strength, and beauty, and bloom, in the shadow of the
school-house, and by the developing power of our excellent educational
system, the pride of the nation, and iii no State more perfect than in
Illinois. Charity erects her mansions and invites poverty from the deserts
to loiter among the flowers; she builds hospitals for the sick and surrounds
them with all the charms which can glow from sympathy and pitying
tenderness, and to the weak and tempted she opens delightful retreats
where the tempter sings not, and where danger is swallowed up in victory.
THUS, this people have carved greatness out of the rude rock and the
wilderness, turned adversity into p.o^penty, adorned their nation with
360 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
the loveliest of virtues, challenged the admiration of the world, and
developed from a handful of fugitives into a population of forty-three
millions. And whence comes this glory and power and perfection? What
magic wand has touched the earth and brought forth our New Yorks
and Philadelphias, and Baltimores and Bostons in the East, and our Chi-
cagos and St. Louis, and Cincinnatis, and San Franciscos in the West?
What has dammed our streams and turned their currents upon the wheels
of our factories, and made our Lowells and Lawrences and Fall Rivers,
and Janesvilles? What was the torch which lighted the fires in our
furnaces and rolling-mills, and what is it that has kept them burning from
the day's dawning till another dawn, and from the birth of January to
the death of December? What has sent the locomotive snorting from the
Atlantic across the plains to the Pacific, and threading its way from city
to city, and even rolling into the modest hamlets of the most unpromising
sections? Why hover the ships in our harbors, like bees about the flower,
or confiding birds about the hand that feeds them? What has made the
nation what it is — the patron of commerce, the promoter of education,
the land of industry and enterprise, the gorgeous home of forty-three
millions of freemen? The three millions of American farms have made
America. The harvests from our five hundred millions of cultivated acres
have built our store-houses and railroads and school-houses, and fed our
commerce and peopled our cities. The sound of the reapers and thresh-
ing-machines is the music which allures the emigrant to our shores and
soothes him into contentment. Agriculture is the world's greatest neces-
sity, and its richest blessing. The city, with its royal architecture, its
monuments, its industry and its culture, is an object of p'ardonable pride
to itself, and of admiration to the country, but it borrows its flush of ruddy
health from the roses, and its dignity and importance from the fields.
When the husbandman folds his arms and the soil sleeps, the proudest
city starves, the bustle of her industry is hushed in the silence of despair,
the shipping deserts her wharves, and, though a less curiosity than Pompeii,
she is scarcely less desolate. Enterprise sits in the shadow of the groan-
ing granary and laughs at the flames which melt down a -Boston or a
Chicago, and before the last ember has ceased to burn', sets a new and
more beautiful city upon the smoking ruins. But a field, devastated by
grasshoppers, strikes terror to the very heart of the nation, and almost
paralyzes its energies. We sit down in the studios of our artists amidst
the eloquent marble and the reflections of beautiful nature upon the canvas,
and worship the genius which aspires to excel in the New World the
artistic achievements of ancient Greece and Rome, but, if reflective, never
forget that but for the plow and the cultivator, these halls of art would be
as cheerless and uninviting as the chambers of the Roman catacombs.
In these times, when shadows rather than substance are often sought,
when the gilded useless ball on the spire attracts attention from the sub-
stantial foundation of the structure, when our young men and women are
charmed by the glitter of city life and the ease of the lighter employments,
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 361
it is the duty of those who write or edit, to lose no favorable opportunity
to portray the dignity, usefulness and influence of agriculture. The rou°"h
hands fresh from the handles of the plow, the bronzed brow upon which
the Summer suns have crayoned the badge of habitual exposure, the stiff
walk, and, perhaps, bent form of the farmer, may constitute an unsightly
picture to those who have so far lost sight of the legitimate objects of life,
as to suppose that the possession of soft hands, fair brows and fashionable
clothing is among the most prominent. But such feelings, and ridicule or
censure from such a source, can never shadow the bright fame of agricul-
tural pursuits or lessen the realization among thinking men that it is as
honorable to tread the furrow as the streets of the most magnificent city,
and that he who holds the implement of productive industry, and whose
thought directs it in the cultivation of the earth, is among, and prominent
among, the world's noblemen.
The danger most to be apprehended in all communities which are
making such rapid strides in the achievement of influence and the accumula-
tion of wealth as this nation is making, is the tendency to degrade labor
and to worship the unsubstantial. Republics which have preceded ours
have foundered upon this very rock, and have gone to pieces while the
men at the wheel and on the decks were robed in fine purple, and the pas-
sengers were reveling amidst golden luxuries. It is easy to fiddle while
Rome burns, but it is criminal. It only requires a spirit of absolute
enmity to self interests, to say nothing of the claims of posterity upon us,
to carouse like a drunken Alexander in the midst of pressing duties, or to
rust out our lives in the glare of magnificence and in idle revelry like a
Cleopatra. It is not much trouble to become so utterly and astonishingly
useless, or so disgustingly vile as to even find a lasting place in history
because of exceptional weakness of character or unparalleled wickedness
of conduct. It is never difficult to float down the stream, and in the
descent down the hillside the descending body gathers velocity with every
turn. Ancient republics were builded upon the strong arm of labor, and
were the products of the fertile fields surrounding them. But when they
sought to sift the gold from the dirt, worshiping the glittering dust and
despising the earth which holds it, the top of the hill had been reached,
and the descent began. Rome might to-day have presented to the world
the continuous history of a republic had she not forgotten to honor the
hand that carved her fortunes and gave her embellishment. If we can
escape these dangers as cities and as a Republic, patriotism and selfishness
alike must certainly prompt us to do it. • The dignity of labor must be
upheld as a work of responsible, patriotic citizenship. Our young men
and our maidens must be taught that labor is honorable, and especially
that industry which has made our proud Republic and built and adorned
our massive cities, is worthy not only of their adoration, but of the practical
devotion of their lives.
Nor is this a supremely difficult undertaking. American manhood
and womanhood are approachable with reason. In all the world there is
362 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS,
not another people so thoroughly evenly balanced as this people. ' Excite-
ment may whirl them about for a moment or a day, as the ship is tossed
upon the ocean; passion may burst forth like a threatening flame and
glare savagely for an instant, and allurements may temporarily charm
from the path of duty to self, to country and posterity, but reason asserts
itself just before danger is to be consummated, and as a people the decision
is always right. What our people are in their collective capacity, they
»are in individual character. Approachable, ultimately temperate in judg-
ment, however apparently wild in previous expression, and inclined to
listen to argument, an erroneous course of action, if demonstrated to be
erroneous, will usually be abandoned ; and, therefore, it is believed that
the city lip which curls in disdain when the tiller of the soil is mentioned,
could without much trouble be smoothed into natural shape, and that the
rush of boys and girls from the farms to the city might with equally little
trouble be stopped.
If farming were considered fashionable, it will be admitted, we pre-
sume, that the city would be the most unfortunate of places, except, perhaps,
the farms on which city farmers were operating. Our young gentlemen
would replace their kid gloves with buckskins, and their dainty canes with
pitchforks, and our young ladies would cover their silks with calico and
drop the crimper to take up the rolling pin. The city would be depopulated,
and its streets be left to the adornment or disfigurement of growing grasses.
It is not at all unlikely that there would be more luxuriant crops in the
city streets than- there would be on farms cultivated by the city deserters.
All that seems to be necessary, therefore, is to invest agriculture with the
charm of fashion, and even with its hard work it will be placed by a
universal verdict at the head of human occupations; and perhaps a glance
at its history and the esteem in which it has been held by great men and
noted nations in the past will have a tendency to awaken for it a respect
and admiration in such minds — young or old — which have drifted to the
conclusion that a rugged, independent farmer is not quite as important to
society as a drygoods clerk who labors ten hours a day, sleeps in an attic
and boards at a cheap restaurant.
The progress and standing of agricultural industries have been lost
sight of in the empty show of less useful occupations, and in the hurricane
of noises which those who practice them have indulged in. Agriculture
is the most ancient of human occupations. If we are believers in the
Scriptures, we are believers of this; and without the Bible as our instructor,
we must naturally arrive at the same conclusion to which it leads us.
Through the Bible record the promoter of agricultural industries is held
prominently before the reader, and if we accept the Scriptures as the
Word of God, we must conclude that He who planted Eden, desired to
especially commend the tilling of the soil. But leaving the Biblical record
of farming operations out of the question, the art, or science as advocated
and practiced by men and peoples of prominence, unmentioned in this,
connection in Scripture, dates sufficiently far back to entitle it to our respect
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 363
as an intelligently fostered ancient occupation. In the time of Homer,
agriculture may be said to have been fashionable — so much so that King
Laertes entered upon the practical cultivation of the soil, believing that
that would add to his kingly dignity. Hesiod, the contemporary of Homer,
was the author of a poem upon agriculture. Xenophon wrote a treatise
upon the subject, and occasional mention is made of it in the works of
Aristotle and Theophrastus. These are by no means, however, the extent
of Grecian agricultural literature. Varro says that there were at least fifty
authorities upon agriculture in his time. But those we have mentioned
are all that have been preserved.
The Carthaginians were evidently devotees of farming, Mago, one
of their famous generals, being the author of no less than twenty-eight
agricultural books, and " it is probable," as says a writer, " that under the
auspices of these people agriculture flourished in Sicily, which was after-
ward the granary of Rome." At all events the devotion of such a man
as Mago, whose training would naturally be supposed to direct his thoughts
in an entirely different course, to agriculture, to a degree that he expended
time and study sufficient to prepare such a large number of volumes, is
indicative that the farm and the husbandman occupied an exalted position
in the esteem of Carthage. The hand that wielded the sword was not
afraid to grasp the pen to,do homage to the field, and to instruct the tiller
of the soil. Whether pleasure or duty prompted him, the fact that he
considered the subject worthy his attention, remains.
The Romans were enthusiastic promoters of agricultural interests,
until they became profligate and debased. In the early ages of the Re-
public its greatest men were farmers. Cincinnatus, the good and the pure,
came from the plow to the office of dictator, and returned to it when his
work was finished. Regulus was as much interested in his little farm as
he was in the honors of his office, and requested the Senate to grant him
the privilege of returning to it for a short period. In addition to Varro,
Cato, Columella, Pliny, Palladius and Virgil wrote frequently of matters
pertaining to agriculture. It is not likely that any American would think
it a disgrace to be compared intellectually with any of these men; and it
is barely possible that some of our young men who feel that nature has
molded them too nicely and too grandly to even speak respectfully of the
farm, much less to engage actively in the study or practice of agriculture,
might consent to be a Pliny or a Virgil. With such illustrious examples
of individual consecration to the basis of the world's glory and grandeur,
and while history records the unfortunate fact that with the decline of such
a rich, powerful and brilliant community as the Roman Republic, came a
neglect and decline of agriculture, neither the best of us nor the worst of
us need be ashamed to admire, or can afford to despise the farm.
In our time we have made wonderful and perhaps satisfactory progress
in matters pertaining to agriculture; and yet all that we have may not,
after all, be so much in advance of some things which were possessed by
those who went before us. We are exceedingly apt to base our claims
364 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
of superiority to the past upon very unstable grounds. The present is not
exactly a morning that has followed thousands of years of night. The
day began to break sometime before the eighteenth century. There was
some light playing upon the flowers and on the walks of the Garden of
Eden, and it has not grown any dimmer through all the years that have
intervened between then and now, and in some respects, perhaps, it has not
grown any brighter. It is very certain that in some arts and customs the past
excelled us, and it is by no means certain that even in labor saving machinery
we are so far ahead that we can afford to fold our arms, under the delusion
that perfection has been reached. It is somewhat difficult to determine
what was the character of the agricultural implements used by the Romans;
but " it is clear," as Crabbe remarks, " that they used the plow, with and
without wheels, with and without boards, with and without coulters,
and with shares of different construction." Both Pliny and Palladius
speak of a reaping machine which was in use, and which was drawn by
oxen, a favorite animal alike among the Jews, Grecians and Romans.
After the decline of the Empire agriculture lost much of its dignity,
because of the unnatural condition of the Romans. From that time until
the fifteenth century, not a book, or line, so far as is known, was written
upon the subject, except the Geoponics, which was probably collected by
Constantine Pogonatus, by whom it was published. After this long
interval, Crescenzio, of Bologna, compiled a little work which he collected
from Roman authors, and which had the effect to call the attention of his
countrymen to the long neglected subject. Crescenzio's work was followed
by some Italian agricultural literature, and the result was a revival of the
long neglected interest. But the grand impulse was the feudal system,
which although never having existed in our country, as a fact, does in
some sense have a technical existence everywhere, or in other words, the
owner of landed property is given an importance and influence which are
not possessed, as a rule, by other citizens. At the present the principal
advantages and privileges which the feudal system gave to the owner of
the land, still exist and must exist, while the burdens and restraints upon
others are no more. Young men in and out of the city cannot understand
this too soon. The soil of a country is the country, and whoever owns it
owns the country. Our young men are negligent of duty to themselves,
and are unfitted to assume some of the most important relations of life,
unless they make the ownership of land a prime object of life. But a
home, and a home in the country which supplies the city with food, apparel,
wealth and grandeur, is usually preferred. Under no circumstances under-
rate the farm home or the farmer. It is 'they who are leading America
to peerless greatness.
That part of agricultural industry which we call stock raising, has
developed into immense propoxtions in this country, and is constantly
enlarging. The introduction of improved breeds of cattle, sheep and
s\vine has made the business profitable, and our large area of cheap lands,
by enabling us to produce meats at comparatively small cost, has made us
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 365
formidable competitors of European stock raisers in their own markets.
The breeding, raising and fattening of live stock, especially in the West,
have been reduced to scientific exactness, and are in the hands of men who
are more than ordinarily intelligent and enterprising. No industry per-
taining to the farm is at this time upon a more solid basis, or more carefully
prosecuted. The speculative spirit which at one time controlled the
business, so far as improved breeds were concerned, has given way to
sound commercial principles, and the animal sells for what it is worth,
and not for what fashionable, not to say foolish, caprice asks for it. The
result is that our fine imported cattle, hogs and sheep, or their descendants,
instead of being confined to those farms whose owners have more money
than judgment, are very generally scattered over the country, and are
within reach of the humblest farmer in the land. It is not the lack of
money but the want of enterprise that in these days shuts the gate of any
stock yard against the entrance of the best breeds. The markets of the
world are open to and eager for American meats, and ordinary wisdom
suggests to us that our interests lie in the direction of furnishing what the
markets call for. We cannot sell scrub stock to advantage, even at home,
and it is thoroughly unmerchantable in Europe". To compete with the
fine meats of England, we must produce the very best and produce it at
a less cost than they can do it there; and this we can do. English stock
raisers are jealous of the American product, simply for the reason that it
is as good as theirs and can be sold cheaper. They do not hesitate to say
that our cattle "kill" as well as theirs, and their only hope of saving them-
selves from ruin is to induce the government to place such restrictions
upon the sale of American meats as to seriously embarrass our shippers.
A recent government decree that American cattle shall be slaughtered
very soon after their arrival, is of this character, the object being to pre-
vent the feeding up necessary to bring the animal into the best condition-
It may well be doubted if the plea that such measures are prompted by
fear of contagious disease is anything but a pretense, for it is not probable
that a people could be so deceived as to believe that disease exists when it
does not. A prominent English breeder once said to an American ex-
porter of cattle that England would find it necessary to embarrass the
American export trade in some manner, or English breeders would be
ruined; and that is doubtless the spirit which prompts all such restrictions
as the English government has seen fit thus far to impose.
Such things show, however, how vast the live stock interest in the
United States is, and how such corporations as our own Union Stock
Yards are enabled to amass wealth so rapidly, and to such an extent as to
furnish well defined grounds of alarm among those who have learned the
lessons which history teaches, and are consequently prepared to see danger
in a too large concentration of capital. In the report of receipts at the
Union Stock Yards for one week — which lies before us — we find that thirty-
three thousand cattle, two hundred and fifty thousand hogs and six thou-
sand sheep came into these yards. This large number of cattle, swine and
366 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
sheep is not for an exceptional week, but is about the average business
done at these yards, and shows what the interest really is. The annual
receipts set this forth still more prominently, and the increase of business
from year to year gives a clear view of the enormous increase of stock
breeding and feeding in the West.
There is in the United States at this writing thirty-three million, two
hundred and thirty-four thousand, five hundred cattle; thirty-eight million,
one hundred and twenty-six thousand swine, and thirty-four million, seven
hundred and sixty thousand, one hundred sheep; figures of such dimensions
as to create profound astonishment, and yet they are small as compared to
what the future will produce. Our country is a new country, and but
very partially settled. Millions of acres are yet untouched by an imple-
ment, and even unpressed by a human foot. From ocean to ocean and
from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, every foot of farming land will some
time be occupied, while in the older sections of the country, the popula-
tion will double, treble and perhaps quadruple. There is no doubt whatever
that this country will yet contain a population equal to the present entire
population of the globe. The world is pouring its intellect and its muscle
into the Republic of the West, and it will continue to do so as long as it
remains the land of the free and the home of the brave, and as long as
America furnishes better inducements for labor than is furnished in the
crowded, and in some cases, exhausted communities of the Old World.
People will come from the night of tyranny into the morning of liberty;
from where labor is oppressed to where labor is free; from where the few
live and the many starve, to where industry and enterprise are justly
rewarded. The result must be an increase of general prosperity, and its
certain accompaniment, an increase of consumption. Paupers will be
converted into prosperous citizens, and the foremost industry of the nation,
agriculture, in all its branches, must receive a quickening which will ripen
into a development that will make its present condition, grand as it is, seem
exceedingly meager.
367
ISAAC WAIXEL.
The lives of eminently successful business men are found to be
subjects of story as attractive to this generation as those of monarchs or
heroes; and the admiration bestowed upon those who have surmounted
the difficulties which beset all and wreck so many, and become victors
and representative men, is just and legitimate. Men of mediocre talents
and indifferent energy may prove successful as warriors, rulers or legislators,
but in the commercial world nothing but superior ability, tireless energy
and sleepless enterprise can hope to reach permanent eminence. The
life of the merchant or other commercial representative is a hand-to-hand
conflict with competing forces and frequently with adverse circumstances.
It brings into activity every attribute of the human mind, and often requires
a courage which would shadow that necessary to face opposing forces on
the battle field. Success in general business enterprises, in fact, pre-
supposes a better defined and more brilliant genius than that so freely
attributed to the poet or artist, and when success has been achieved by
a man who began on the very lowest round of the ladder, lifting himself
by his own unaided efforts and the judicious employment of his natural
abilities, into position and affluence, his recognized genius clouds the fame
of any prince or potentate in the world. The time was when humble-
ness of beginning would forever shadow the most brilliant successes in
after life. But the world has grown wiser and more reasonable, until the
proudest title a man can wear is that he is self-made — that his success is
the harvest of his own individual sowing and cultivation.
To no man more than to Isaac Waixel, the subject of this sketch,
does the honor of being self-made, nor do the qualities which command
the world's respect and admiration belong. By sheer force of will,
indomitable energy and an honorable course of life, he has raised himself
from the position of a peddler of Yankee notions to that of one of Chi-
cago's most influential and substantial citizens, and has achieved his really
brilliant success in the short period of twenty-five years.
Isaac Waixel was born in the month of October, 1830, at Rembach,
Hesse Darmstadt, Germany, and is the son of Henry and Caroline Waixel.
His childhood was spent at home, and he enjoyed some, although very
limited school privileges, his education being the result of his own personal
and unaided efforts to acquire knowledge in after years. Nothing of a
specially interesting character occurred in the life of young Waixel, until he
368 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
was twenty-two years of age, when we find him in America traveling
through the counties of Delaware, Ulster and Otsego, New York, peddling
Yankee notions, which he carried in a basket. Even then, the enter-
prising spirit which has since distinguished him, was observed, for he
soon enlarged his stock, substituted a pack for his basket, and revisited
the counties through which he had pi-eviously traveled. But he soon
outgrew the pack, and in 1854 purchased a horse and wagon, and began
selling dry goods, clothing, jewelry and watches. He was not long
engaged in this business, however, before he entered into a co-partnership
with two brothers named Marx, and kept a store in Delhi, New York.
The new firm prospered satisfactorily until the panic of 1857 broke upon
the country., when like many other houses, it was compelled to suspend,
leaving the partners .under a burden of indebtedness; and yet this misfor-
tune was, after all, not so great a misfortune to the subject of our sketch
as it would have been to one of less sterling character. It furnished him
the opportunity to show the world his unflinching honesty, for in 1860
he paid the entire indebtedness of his firm, and has never been reimbursed
by those who were equally liable.
After his failure in Delhi, Mr. Waixel came to Chicago, arriving in
the Fall of 1857, and immediately engaged in dealing in live stock. In 1859
he formed a co-partnership with Nelson Morris, and from that time until
1861 the firm was Morris & Waixel. In 1861 Moses Rhineman v,as
admitted as a partner and the firm name was changed to Morris, Waixel
& Rhineman, which was the style until 1865, when Mr. Morris withdrew
and the firm became Waixel & Rhineman, which continued in business
for about two years, and was then dissolved. After this Mr. Waixel took
his brother David into his business, and until October, 1873, they did
business under the name and style of I. & D. Waixel. From that date,
however, until 1875, the old firm of Morris & Waixel was again in exist-
ence, which was then supplanted for a year by I. & D. Waixei. In 1876
our subject entered into a co-partnership with Samuel W. Allerton, and
until 1878 the firm was Waixel & Allerton. At present Mr. Waixel is
prosecuting his immense business without a partner.
Few men in any branch of trade are privileged to do the volume
of business which Mr. Waixel has done since entering into the cattle
trade. During the years 1871 and 1872 the business of his firm aggregated
twenty million dollars a year; and during the war of the rebellion
Morris, Waixel & Rhineman had contracts with the government to fur-
nish live cattle to be delivered at Baltimore, Philadelphia, Louisville and
other points. Yet amidst all the responsibilities necessarily growing- out
of such constantly large transactions, Mr. Waixel has never failed in
exercising cool judgment and extraordinary foresight, and in otherwise
displaying the magnificent business characteristics of his mind.
At Norfolk, Virginia, September ist, 1863, Mr. Waixel was married
to Caroline HofFheimer, a lady of superior endowments. Five children
have blessed this union: David, born August 6th, 1865; Monie, born April
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 260
i6th, 1867; Clara, born May, 1869; Harry, born April, 1872, and died
February 2d, 1877; Florence, born May, 1874. In his elegant home the
husband and father is surrounded by this most interesting family, upon
which he bestows the kindness of a manly heart, and in which he cherishes
a pardonable pride. With all his large business interests, claiming so
much of his thought and attention, he neither forgets his duties in the
home circle, nor fails to respond to the demands of the church and society.
For many years he has been connected with Zion Congregation, and
the Hebrew Relief Society, and is also a member of the Standard Club.
We thus close this brief sketch of a life which has been brilliantly
successful, honorable and useful; a life which is worthy of imitation by
those who are gifted with the necessary ability to reach the honorable
prominence which Mr. Waixel has reached, and the record of which as
the embodiment of honor, will be a rich inheritance of all who may
hereafter bear the name of him who has achieved so much and so grandly;
and yet in the prime of life, our subject has many years before him in
which to add to the laurels of success which are already his, and to still
more deeply impress himself upon the growth of the great metropolis
of tl'o prain' s.
37°
WILSON THOMPSON KEENAN.
Wilson T. Keenan was born in Warren county, Ohio, October lyth,
1836, and is the son of Joseph and Eliza Keenan. His father was always
one of those active and enterprising men who meet fortune half way and
never wait for it to be thrust upon them. Self-reliant, far-seeing and gifted
with more than an ordinary degree of judgment, he was quick to detect
•opportunities and had decision of character enough to embrace them. It
was such traits of mind and character that made him a pioneer in the
business of pork packing and the hog trade in the West. When Kentucky,
Ohio and Indiana produced all the hogs that were grown in the midst of
this present great hog producing section of country, he entered upon the
business in Cincinnati. His keen foresight enabled him thus early to
discern the importance and profitableness of this vast industry.
Our subject, therefore, has been heir to a rich inheritance of natural
-ability, which he has supplemented by patient application to business and
untiring industry. Possessing in an eminent degree the elements of suc-
cess, he has trained them in the proper direction. His birthright of well
poised intellect was great, but he is in the most literal sense a self-made
man. Since he was thirteen years of age, he has been fighting the battle
of life under his own magnificent generalship. With such an education
as a district school would furnish a boy, he went out into the world, at
. that early age, to carve his own fortune, apprenticing himself to learn the
business of butchering, which, like everything he has ever undertaken, he
did in a most thorough manner.
When nineteen years old, young Keenan came to Illinois, settling at
Quincy, and first identified himself with the progress of this State, by
assisting in the construction of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy railroad.
For a time he was the station agent at Colchester, on this road ; but he
made his most prominent entrance into the business of the State in 1857,
when he bought grain on the line of the Burlington road for shipment to
St. Louis, and also hogs, which he shipped to Quincy. In the Winter
of 1858-9 he superintended the buying of Jiogs and packing of pork for
Hurlburt & Provost, at Keithsburg. The next Winter he was at Burling-
ton, Iowa, in the same business for other parties. In 1860-1 he was
engaged in slaughtering and shipping dressed hogs at Camp Point, Illinois.
During the year following he built slaughter houses at West Quincy,
Missouri, and Quincy, Illinois, and packed pork until the close of the war
r ' r
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS 371
of the rebellion, in 1865, when he came to Chicago, and commenced in
the live stock commission business at the Union Stock Yards, being among
the pioneers in this business at these yards. From that time up to the
present, Mr. Keenan ha,s been a prominent feature in the history of
the business at this center of the live stock trade in the West. No man
connected with this fertile source of income to Chicago, commands greater
respect, or is more enterprising and alert. In handling every description
of live stock his firm is abreast with the foremost. The firm of which
Mr. Keenan is a member, has, perhaps, larger consignments of Texan
cattle than any other concern ; and this is probably attributable to the fact
that Mr. Keenan's name and enterprise have been made familiar by his
assistance in laying out the trail by which stock from the Lone Star State
is driven to Abilene, Kansas.
On the twenty-sixth of February, 1857, Mr. Keenan was married, at
Quincy, Illinois, to Martha Ann Tatman, who is a lady of superior char-
acter, and to whom a husband gives credit for the only assistance that he
has ever had in his struggle for the position he now holds among his
fellow-men. Six children have blessed this union — William E., Horace
M., Laura D., Joseph L., Mattie Anderson and Robert Ray.
It is exceedingly difficult to find language to express a correct estimate
of a character which has been developed by a young boy into such com-
manding proportions as those which distinguish the character of our
subject. Among the foremost of the men who are identified with an
industry in which not only Chicago, but the entire West, and indeed the
whole country, are intimately interested; enjoying an influence and affluence
which most men would envy; prosecuting a business which is immense
in its aggregate results and very intricate in details, yet Mr. Keenan has
lifted himself into the proud position he occupies. The voyage from such
an humble start has not always been upon tranquil waters. ' Storms have
sometimes come, and many times have threatened; but there has never
been a cloud that has not melted into sunshine — never a storm that was
not followed by a calm. Mr. Keenan has triumphed over obstacles that
would have appalled and paralyzed a less gifted and less determined man.
But he is of that class of heroes who never know when they are whipped,
and who, consequently, convert every disaster into victory, building
palaces and temples upon ruins, and thus concealing beneath beauty and
woi'th the disfigurement of wrecks which cannot always be avoided, but
which need not be left as a monument of desolation.
Wilson Thompson Keenan is a successful man. He has fought a
valiant battle and is the victor. In the midst of difficulties at the beginning,
and in the center of competition that would sometimes seem to verge
upon recklessness, he has held his own, preserved his honor untarnished,
accumulated a fortune which evidently is ample, but can only be estimated,
has contributed to the wealth and development of this great city, and has
won the esteem and confidence of the thousands who know him.
372
JOHN H. WOOD
The subject of the following sketch — at present one of our most
prominent live stock commission merchants — :is a representative of a class
which is confined almost exclusively to our own country, and is comprised
of men who are distinguished for having achieved prominence through
their own unaided effort. Many of the brightest names in American his-
tory are those of statesmen, authors, poets, orators, warriors, inventors and
business men whose origins were obscure and unpromising. In our Re-
public there is no unnatural or unusual obstacle to success. Obscurity may
blossom into fame; poverty may clothe itself in the splendors of wealth;
ignorance may lose itself in the highest culture. America is the one
favored spot on earth where the triumphs of life are as plentiful as merits,
and where merit alone wins. Nor was the truth of this claim ever more
prominently confirmed than it is in the life we are about to sketch.
John H. Wood was born in Embrow, County of Oxford, Canada,
September 3ist, 1835. His father's name was Alexander, and his mother's
Barbra McPherson, both of whom are of Scotch nativity, and possessed
of the proverbial sterling Scotch character, which the son has inherited.
The father was a prosperous brewer, mill owner and dairyman, quite able
to take care of and educate his children, but from one cause and another —
probably as much owing to the willfulness of the son as to anything else
— John, at the age of fourteen, had enjoyed no facilities for education, and
indeed was not able to read or write until after arriving at his majority
and even after his marriage. At the age of fourteen, against the wishes
of his parents, he determined to begin life for himself, showing the same
indomitable will which has characterized him through life, and has enabled
him to surmount obstacles which comparatively few men could do. His
control over himself and his surroundings was then, and has ever since
been absolute. He has always been of that most valiant class of heroes,
who could conquer himself, if it were necessary for a complete achieve-
ment of any special object.
Leaving home at this early age he began driving stage from Wood-
stock to Stratford — a route of twenty-five miles in length — but followed
this occupation for only three months. Young as he was, he saw that in
such a business he could neither secure standing nor competence, and, there-
fore, directed his steps, with extraordinary wisdom, toward the acquirement
of a trade. He went to Brantfoid, Canada, and apprenticed himself for
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 373
three years to learn the business of carriage trimming. It was a noble
act, and was indicative of the character of the man — self-reliant, indepen-
dent and far seeing. Upon the expiration of his apprenticeship he worked
as a journeyman in the establishment in which he learned his trade for
one year, and won golden opinions from his employers and all with whom
he came in contact. While here he was married to Mary McDonald — in
1856 — a lady of estimable virtues, and who has ever since rilled her sacred
office in a most exemplary manner. After his marriage Mr. Wood began
the difficult task of instructing himself in a book education. With his
peculiar power of application and his characteristic perseverance in what-
ever he undertakes, he condemned himself, in his leisure moments, to the
arduous work of learning to read and write, and to obtaining a general
education. He persisted in this until he obtained a good education, and
was prepared to begin- his prosperous career in Chicago.
In 1859 Mr. Wood came to Chicago, and entered upon the business
of liveryman and carnage manufacturer, in which he was engaged until
1861. Leaving this business he engaged with William M. Tilden in the
capacity of a buyer of hogs at the Fort Wayne Stock Yards, which
position he retained until 1865, when he commenced business for himself
as a live stock commission merchant, and from that beginning the great
firm of Wood Brothers at the Union Stock Yards has come, and which is
doing a business, probably, second to none in that busy hive of industry.
Personally Mr. Wood is the most cordial of gentlemen, and generous
to a fault. With the income of a magnificent business, he is in a position
to be liberal with his chanties, and he bestows them without stint when
the object is worthy. Of late years he has become an advocate of the tem-
perance cause, and the Woman's Christian Temperance Union and Reform
Clubs have found him a most liberal patron. During the last few years
there is no one in Chicago who has contributed so munificently to the
advancement of temperance work as has Mr. Wood; his presence or his
money has never been lacking, if either were required to stem the current
of intemperance. His devotion to the principles of total abstinence is as
firm as his devotion to his own private interests.
Mr. Wood has had seven children born unto him, but only five survive
— James, now twenty-four years of age, Elizabeth J., twenty-two, William,
twelve, John John, ten and Agnes B., six. From the oldest to the youngest
these children are all that a doting father could desire, and in his domestic
life the husband and father enjoys the reflections of a paradise.
In closing this sketch, which is so fertile of instruction to youth, the
lad and to early manhood, we wish that it might be read by every boy
and young man in all the world. Here is such a brilliant example of what
determination will do, that no boy or young man, reasonably gifted, has
excuse for remaining down stairs while the upper stories are not crowded.
In all that pertains to the secret of beginning low, aiming at something
higher, and achieving success, this brief outline of the life of John H.
Wood is sufficient to encourage the youth of Our country.
374
CHAPTER XXV.
FIRST CHICAGO DIRECTORS.
In the midst of such progress as has been made, and from a city of
over half a million people, let us turn back once again to the humble
beginning of all this greatness and grandeur. Already the days of small
things, the birth, the cradle and the youth of our metropolis are precious
to the student of history, but as the years roll by, and the record lengthens,
they will become more so. The time will come, and is not very far
distant, either, when the relics of early Chicago will be sought by the
world with the eagerness which marks its search for the relics of antiquity.
While, therefore, the first business directory of the city will not be new
and scarcely interesting to many Chicagoans, it will be of a character
sufficiently curious and interesting to those who are not Chicagoans, and
to the future, to warrant its preservation in a popular form like this. Hence
its insertion here. This directory was published in 1839, and with the
exception of some wrong font letters, is reproduced according to the style
of the original, as follows:
Adams, William H., shoe and leather dealer, 138 lake street,
Arnold, Isaac N., attorney and counsellor at law, dearborn street,
Abel, Sidney, postmaster, office, clark street,
Allen, J. P., boot and shoe maker, north water street,
Attwood, J. M., house, sign and ornamental painter, randolph street,
Bristol & Porter, agents for C. M. Reed, forward. commis. merchants,
Beaubien, J. B. Esq., reservation, fronting the lake,
Blassy, B., baker, randolph street,
Boyce, L. M., wholesale druggist and apothecary, 121 lake street,
Brackett, William W., city clerk, clark street,
Brown, Henry, attorney and counsellor at law, clark street,
Bancroft, J. W. & Co., lake street coffee house, 135 lake street,
Beecher, J., boot and shoe maker and leather dealer, 160 lake street,
Burley, A. G., crockery, stone and earthenware merchant, 161 lake street,
Bates & Morgan, cabinet makers, 199 lake street,
Botsford & Beers, copper, tin and sheetiron merchants, dearborn street,
Brinkerhoff, Dr. John, clark street,
Belts, Dr., residence and office michigan street,
Brown, William H., cashier, Illinois branch state bank, lasalle street,
Boyer, J. K., corner, south water street,
Beaumont & Skinner, attorneys and counsellors at law, clark street,
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 375
Balestier, J. N., attorney and counsellor at law, dark street,
Burton, Stiles, wholesale grocer and liquor dealer, lake and state strs.
Bowen, Erastus, city collector, foot of south water street.
Berry, B. A. & Co., dry goods and grocery store, soutn water street,
Bradley, Asa F., city surveyor, morrison's row, clark street,
Brady, George, constable, alley between north water and kinzie street,
Briggs & Humphrey, carriage and wagon makers, randolph street,
Butterfield, Justin, attorney and counsellor at law, dearborn street,
Bolles, Nathan H., county commissioner, overseer of poor, lake street,
Bethime, Andrew, Parisian dyer and scourer, north water street,
Carter, T. B. & Co., fancy dry goods merchants, 118 lake street,
Clarke, W. H. & A. F., wholesale druggists & apothecaries, 128 lake st.
Cole, A., ship, house, sign and ornamental painter, 129 lake street,
Carney, John, grocery and provision store, 133 lake street,
Cure, P., grocery and provision store, randolph street,
Curtiss, James, attorney and counsellor at law, 175 lake street,
Clever, J., soap boiler, factory on the south branch,
Collins, S. B. & Co., boot, shoe and leather dealer, 140 lake street,
Church, Thomas, grocery and provision store, 1 1 1 lake street,
Childs, S. D., wood and metal engraver, saloon buildings, clark street,
Clark, L. W., exchange broker and lottery agent, 150^ lake street,
Cleveland & Co., house, sign and ornamental painters, dearborn street,
Conklin, J., blacksmith, carriage and wagon repairer, clark street,
Cook, C. W., Illinois exchange, 192 lake street,
Cobb, S. B., saddle, bridle, harness and trunk maker, 171 lake street,
Cook, Isaac W., eagle coffee house, dearborn street,
Clarke, Dr., 159 lake street,
Cunningham, John, grocery, north water street, at the ferry,
Couch, Ira, hotel keeper, corner of dearborn and lake streets,
Calhoun, John, collector of taxes, Eddy's store,
Carpenter, Philo, druggist and apothecary, south water street,
Chacksfield, George, grocery and provision store, south water street,
Collins, J. H., attorney and counsellor at law, dearborn street,
Colvin, Edwin B., door and sash maker, dearborn and north water streets,
David, William, boot and shoe maker, near New York house, lake street,
Doyle, S., draper and tailor, junction of kinzie and north water sts.
Durand, Charles, attorney and counsellor at law, 149 lake street,
Davis, George, county clerk, 159 lake street,
Delicker, George, wholesale grocery and provision store, 163 lake street,
Dewey, Dr. E., druggist and apothecary, dearborn street,
Dodge & Tucker, ship chandlers and grocers, south water street,
Davlin, John, Auctioneer, corner of dearborn and south water streets,
Davis, Miss A., cloak maker and tailoress, 115 lake street,
Dole, George W., city treasurer, michigan street,
Dyer & Boone, Drs., state street, opposite the new market,
Davis, William H., constable, south water street,
376 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
Eddy & Co., hardware, stove and ironmongers, 105 lake street,
Edwards, Alfred, grocery and provision store, north water street,
Eldriclge, Dr., clark street, Harmon & Loomis' building,
Etzler, Anton, cap, stock and umbrella maker, 151 lake street,
Frink & Bringham, stage office, 123 lake street,
Follansbe, A., grocery and provision store, dearborn street,
Funk, J., fulton and Illinois markets, 95 lake and north water streets,
Foster & Robb, grocers and ship chandlers, dearborn street,
Follansbe, C., grocerv and provision store, dearborn street,
Fenherty, John, fancy diy goods store, south water street,
Fullerton, A. N., lumber merchant, north water street,
Foot, D. P., blacksmith, south water street,
Goss, S. W. & Co., dry goods merchants, 105 lake street,
Gale, S. F., bookseller and stationer, corner of lasalle 159 lake street,
Gale, Mrs., New York millinery store, 99 lake street,
Goodsell & Campbell, dry goods and grocery store, dearborn street,
Goold, N., grocery and provision store, 155 lake street,
Gurnee, W. S., saddle and harness maker, 129 and 164 lake street,
Gray, C. M., street commissioner, randolph street,
Gill, Edmund, Shakspeare hotel, north water street, near the lake house,
Graves, D., Rialto, dearborn street,
Gage, J., flour store, south water street; mill on the south branch,
Gavin, Isaac R., sheriff, randolph st., north-west corner public square,
Goodrich, Grant, attorney and counsellor at law, 105 lake street,
Goodenow, A., dry goods merchant, 134 lake street,
Gray, John, Chicago hotel, wolf point,
Hupp, S., tailor and cutter, 210 lake street,
Hunter, Edward, deputy sheriff, wells street,
Hubbard & Co., forwarding and commission merchants, north water st.
Hooker, J. W., grocery and provision store, 152 lake street,
Hamilton, R. J., clerk circuit court, clark street,
Hobbie & Clark, dry goods merchants, 142 lake street,
Hanson, J. L., grocery and provision store, 146 lake street,
Hodgson, J. H., tailor and clothier, opposite city hotel, clark street,
Hovey & Burbeck, lake street market, 143 lake street,
Howe, Miss, milliner and mantuamaker, corner of lake and wells sts.
Henson, O. C., hair cutting and shaving shop, 183 lake street,
Heymann, F. T., watchmaker and jeweller, 173 lake street,
Hallam, Isaac W., rector St. James' church, corner cass and Illinois sts.
Howe, F., clerk Illinois branch state bank, lasalle street,
Howe, F. A., justice of the peace, 97 lake street,
Harmon, Loomis & Co., wholesale grocers, clark and south water sts.
Holbrook, J., clothing, bed and mattress store, south water street,
Holmes, L. W., hardware and stove merchant, south water street,
Hall, Henry P., barbel', north water street, opposite the lake house,
Howe, J. L., city bake house, north water street,
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 377
Hoyne, Thomas, attorney and counsellor at law, 107 lake street,
Harmon, Isaac D., dry goods merchant, clark street, near the river,
Harmon, William, blacksmith, north water street,
Hunt, B. T., bed and mattress store, south water street,
Huntoon, G. M., constable, near corner of dearborn and kinzie streets,
Higgins, A. D., merchant, (Parish & Metcalf's) 132 lake street,
Hayward & Co., burr mill stone manufactory, kinzie street,
Johnson, J., hair cutting and shaving shop, 131 lake street,
Jones, William, justice of the peace, dearborn street,
Judd, N. B., attorney, exchange buildings, 107 lake street,
King, Ttithill, New York clothing store, 115 lake street,
King, Willis, lumber merchant, randolph street,
| Kerchival, L., inspector of the port of Chicago,
Kinzie & Hunter, forwarding, commission merchants, north water st.
Kendall, Vail & Co., clothing store, 119 lake street,
Keogh, P. R., tailor and clothier, clark street,
Killick, James, grocery and provision store, dearborn street,
Kimberly, Dr. E., residence, north water street, near the lake house,
Kent & Gilson, livery stable keepers, state street,
Leavenworth, J. H., overseer public works, garrison,
Lewis, merchant, dearborn street,
Lewis, A. B., Sunday school agent, lasalle street,
Lowe, Samuel J., high constable, clark street, near methodist church,
Loyd, A., carpenter and builder, wells street,
Lincoln, Solomon, tailor and clothier, 156 lake street,
Lindebner, J., tailor and outter, lake street,
Learv, A. G., attorney and counsellor at law, dearborn street,
Lill, William, brewer, lake shore, north side of the river,
Magie & Co., dry goods merchants, 130 lake street,
M'Donnell, Charles, grocery and provision store, market street,
M'Cracken & Brooks, tailors and clothiers, clark street,
M'Donnell, Michael, grocery, north water street,
Manierre & Blair, merchant tailors, clark street,
Morris, B. S., alderman, attorney and counsellor at law, saloon buildings,
Montgomery, G. B. S., merchant, 137 lake street,
Mills, M., grocery and provision store, 154 lake street,
Matthews, P., dry goods merchant, 162 lake street,
Merrill, George W., dry goods merchant, 16.6 lake street,
Morrison, John H., grocery store, 190 lake street,
Murray, George, tailor and clothier, 198 lake street,
Mooney, Michael, blacksmith, franklin street,
Murray & Brand, exchange brokers, 189 lake street,
Massey, I. F., saddler and shoe merchant, 175 lake street,
Morrison, J., carpenter, clark street,
Morrison, Orsemus, morrison's row, clark street,
Massey, Mrs., milliner and dress maker, 175 lake street,
378 CHICAGO "AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
Malbucher, L., grocery and provision store, 167 lake street,
M'Combe, Mrs., milliner and dress maker, 165 lake street,
Marshall, James A., auctioneer, commission merchant, south water street,,
Mosely & M'Cord, merchants, south water street,
Murphy, J., United States hotel, west water street,
Morrison, John C., grocery and provision store, south water street,
Mitchell, John B., boot and shoemaker, south water street,
Miltimore, Ira, steam sash factory, south branch of Chicago river,
Moore, Henry, attorney and counsellor at law, dark street,
Marsh & Dole, butchers, dearborn street,
Merrick, Dr., 121 lake street; house corner state and ranclolph streets,
Manierre, George, attorney and counsellor at law, 105 lake street,
Meeker, George W., attorney and counsellor at law, 150 lake street,
Mylne & Morrison, lumber merchants, south water street,
Newberry & Dole, forwarding, commission merchants, north water st.-
Norton & Co., H., grocers and provision merchants, south water street,.
Nickalls, Pateson, livery stable keeper, kinzie street,
Nicholson & Co., merchants, north water street,
Osbourn & Strail, hardware, stove, iron merchants, 124 lake street,
Otis S. T. & Co., stove, iron hardware merchants, dearborn street,
Osterhoudt, L. M., New York house, 180 lake street,
Osbourn, William, boot, shoe and leather merchant, 141 lake street,
Oliver, John A., house, sign and ornamental painter, kinzie street,
Ogden, William B. Esq., kinzie street,
Ogden, M. D., of Arnold & Ogden, attorneys, dearborn street,
O'Brien, George, grocery and provision store, north water street,
O'Connor, Martin, blacksmith, randolph street,
Post, Dr., residence lake street, office dearborn street,
Peck, E., treasurer canal fund, clark street,
Page, Peter, mason, clark street, brick building above randolph street,.
Paine & Norton, dry goods merchants, 117 lake street,
Parsons & Holden, grocery and provision store, market street,
Parish & Metcalf, general merchants, 132 lake street,
Peacock & Co., J., gunsmiths, 153 lake street,
Pearson, Hiram, grocer and dry goods merchant, south water street,
Periolat, F. A., grocery and provision store, 126 lake street,
Pfund, J., bread and biscuit maker, clark street,
Phillips, Clifford S., wholesale dry goods merchant, 125 lake street,
Phillips, John F., tailor and clothier, city hotel buildings, clatk street,
Pond, William, watch and clock maker, 183 lake street,
Prescott, E. S., receiver land office, United States, 175 lake street,
Price, J., fire warden, south water street,
Price, Robert, tnilor and clothier, 153 lake street,
Proctor, Dr., dearborn street, below lake street,
Randolph, G. F., wholesale dry goods merchant, 109 lake street,
Rankin, William & John, brass founders, clark street and Illinois street*,
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 379
Raymond, B. W., general dry goods merchant, 122 lake street,
Reed, C. M., forwarding and commission merchant, south water st.
Reed, Mrs., cloak and dressmaker, 115 lake street,
Ross, Hugh, bookbinder and paper ruler, clark street, below lake st.
Rossetter, Asher, mansion house, 86 lake street,
Rucker, Henry L., alderman and justice of the peace, dearborn street,
Rudd, Edward H., job and book printer, saloon buildings, clark street,
Russell, James, city hotel, clark street,
Saltonstall, W. W., Hubbard & Co.'s warehouse, north water street,
Sauter, C. & J., boot and shoemakers, 212 lake street,
Sherman, A. S., mason, west of the south branch of Chicago river,
Sherman, E. L., teller, Illinois branch state bank, lasalle street,
Sherman & Pitkin, general dry goods merchants, 150 lake street,
Sherwood, S. J., watchmaker and jeweller, 144 lake street,
Shields, Joseph, watch and clock repairer, dearborn street,
Shollar, A., grocery and provision store, 200 lake street,
Smith, Bradner, carpenter, wolcott street,
Smith, Lisle, city attorney, 107 lake street,
Smith & Co., J. A., hat and cap manufacturers, 127 lake street,
Smith & Co., George, exchange brokers, 187 lake street,
Stanton & Black, auctioneers, commission merchants, 85 lake street,
Stearns & Hallam, fancy dry goods merchants, 148 lake street,
Stoce & White, blacksmiths, corner randolph and wells streets,
Stocking, Rev. Mr., pastor metho. church, opposite pub. square, clark st.
Stone, H. O., grocer and provision merchant, south water street,
Strode, J. M., register land office, saloon buildings, clark street,
Stuart, W., publisher and editor of Chicago American, south water st.
Sweet, C., grocery and provision store, north water street,
Storms, A., carpenter and builder, state street,
Sawyer, S., druggist and apothecary, dearborn street,
Shelley, G. E., lake house, north water street,
Steele, J. W., city refectory, dearborn street,
Seymour, Jesse, sauganash hotel, market street,
Sweetser, J. Oldharn, surgeon dentist, rush street, opposite lake house,
Stuart, Dr. J. Jay, rush street opposite the lake house
Scammon, J. Young, attorney and counsellor at law, 107 lake street
Spring, Giles, attorney and counsellor at law, 107 lake street
Snow, G. W. & Co., lumber merchants, south water street
Sherman, F. C., contractor and builder, clark street
Tuttle, Nelson, stage agent, 180 lake street
Taylor, Daniel, boot and shoe maker, 120 lake street
Thompson, O. H., grocer and dry goods merchant, south water street
Tucker, William, cooper, south water street
Tripp, , carpenter, clark street, next the methoclist church
Taylor, Francis H., tailor, wolf point
Updike & M'Clure, carpenters and builders, dearborn street
380 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS,
Van Osdell, John, contractor and builder, corn, wolcott and kinzie sts.
Vaughan, William, clothes broker, 159 lake street
Villiard, L. N., grocery and provision store, 187 lake street
Woodworth, R. & J., wholesale dry goods merchants, 103 lake street
Wheeler, William, tin, sheet-iron and copper smith, 145 lake street
Wright, John S., forwarding, commission merchant, north water st.
Weir, John B., cabinet and chair maker, 188 lake street
White, George, city crier, market street, or at Stanton & Black's
Wilman, Andrew, blacksmith, randolph street, opposite public square
VVhitlock, Thomas, boot and shoe maker, 102 lake street
Whiting, W. L., produce and commission merchant, Hubbard's store
Wentworth, J., editor and publisher of Chicago Democrat, 107 lake st.
Wolcott, Henry, private boarding house, corner kinzie and wolcott sts.
Wadsworth, Julius, agent for the Hartford insurance Co., 105 lake st.
Warner, Seth, merchant, south water street
White, Alexander, house, sign and ornamental painter, north water st.
Wicker, J. H., grocery and provision store, 87 lake street
Walton, N. C., grocery and provision store, north water street
Walker & Co., grocer and provision merchant, south water street
Williams, Eli B., recorder, dark street; store south water street
Wait, H. M., grocery and provision store, lake street
Wandell, John, great Western, 152^- lake street
Wheeler, W. F., dry goods merchant, 107 lake street
Williams, J., hair cutting and shaving shop, 90 lake street
Wells, H. G., grocery and provision store, 101 lake street
Yates, H. H., grocery and provision store, dark street
CHURCHES OF THE CITY.
Baptist Church, La Salle, above randolph street; I. T. Hinton, elder,
Episcopal Church, Cass street, opposite Kinzie Square,
Presbyterian Church, west side of Clark street, above the pub. square4
Methodist Church, east side of Clark street, above randolph,
Roman Catholic Church, Corner of Lake and State street,
First Unitarian Society, Rev. Mr. Harrington, Saloon Buildings.
A number of omissions will probably be found in the foregol.ig-
directory, in consequence of the difficulty in procuring a suitable person
to collect names and residences for it; but it is the intention of the pub-
lisheiyas soon as circumstances will permit, to issue another edition, enlarged
and otherwise improved.
CHAPTER XXVI.
GRAIN ELEVATORS.
Not the least interesting feature of Chicago's wonderful entirety are
her mammoth grain elevators, standing out upon the picture of the city,
like huge frowning mountains in the midst of a beautiful plain. Doubt-
less there are very many people who never saw one of these immense
structures, which always look as solemn and somber as a tomb, and to
such the contrast they would form with other and more pretentious
architecture would be of the most marked character. In the center of
the Southern Division the visitor beholds the Custom House and Postoffice,
massive in proportions, if not very graceful in design, always suggesting
that the architect intended tto build a tomb that would be high enough
to walk in without stooping, but modest enough in appearance to satisfy
those who were so fastidious that they would prefer ugliness to show.
Opposite, the Grand Pacific Hotel presenting its handsome architecture
and cheerful fronts, attracts his attention. Through the streets he strolls,
the eye pleased with buildings of varied patterns, but artistic grace, from
the comparatively modest three-story to that which climbs heavenward six
or seven stories, and from the light and airy to the huge Palmer House,
which proclaims from every part of it that it was built to stand the assault
of storm or flame. Wandering on, he confesses to himself, if not to his
companions, that he has seen the largest and most wonderful buildings in
the world. But the greatest building curiosity is yet in reserve, and he
finds it revealed when reaching the river or some of our railroad tracks.
Then looms up before him a pile of material, which seems to have grown
until tired of growing, and with diminished energy capped its growth
with an additional building, or something similar to itself on top, where
thoroughly exhausted, it paused. There it stands, grim, bleak, forbidding.
That is a Chicago grain elevator^ into which, probably, hundreds of thou-
sands of bushels of grain are annually received, and from which the same
quantity is annually discharged. Fifty to a hundred thousand bushels
per day is not an extraordinary shipment at a single elevator, and as
receiving and shipping goes steadily on from one year's end to another,
the enormous aggregate of the grain trade in Chicago can be easily
imagined, without counting the figures which appear in other portions of
this book.
Much fault has been found in the past by producers and shippers with
reference to what are called "terminal charges," in which elevator charges
382 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
are included. The elevators are closely allied with the railroads, but are*
not subject to the control of the State as railroads are. It is within the
power of the legislature to regulate the charges made by railroad corpora-
tions, but elevators being entirely private enterprises — although in
conjunction with the railroads forming something of a monopoly — they
are beyond legislative control. Some years ago, THE WESTERN RURAL,
published at Chicago, took up the matter, and urged the building of
elevators which should be operated under independent management, and
in the interest of producers and shippers, but amidst the numerous reforms
which that active and influential journal has been advocating during the
last few years, the agitation of elevator reform has been dropped, for
the time being at least.
The history of the grain elevator business will be interesting to the
reader, whether a resident of the city or not. If a Chicagoan, he will be
interested because the grain trade has been the great business that has
built up his city and made it what it is. Among all the enterprises which
have thrived here, no single one has done as much for Chicago as the
traffic in grain has done. If the reader should happen to have less interest
in the City of the West than one of its own residents would have, he
will still be interested in reading of the great structures which hold so
lai'ge a portion of the grain grown in this great West.
Through Kingsley R. Olmsted, an old resident, we have been
enabled to secure from L. S. Baker the following concerning the elevators
of Chicago. Mr. Baker says: In the year 1848 I effected a permanent
residence in Chicago. The grain interests up to this date were somewhat
limited, and dependent for power upon the old-fashioned horse-power,
and other simple mechanical movements, either supplied at the top or
bottom of buildings. In this same year the first introduction of steam-
power took place, the first firm using it being R. C. Bristol & Company, who
built and operated the first steam propelled brick elevator in this city. The
site was Market street, between Randolph and Lake streets; it had a
river frontage, and adjoining it was another storage house of frame con-
struction, owned by the same firm. The brick structure had a capacity of
one hundred thousand bushels, an immense capacity in those days. The
frame structure had a capacity of seventy- five thousand bushels, and after
the building of the steam elevator it received power from the former.
The brick structure being crowded beyond its capacity, collapsed, or at
least the eastern wall and contents fell into the street one fine day at eleven
o'clock, and as Market street at that date was a principal thoroughfare, it
was almost a miracle that many people were not buried beneath the ruins.
However, none were even injured, although the writer, witnessing the
scene, beheld a laborer in the elevator riding out on top of the column of
wheat, but landing safely in the street Truly that Irishman had a "lofty"
ride. The building was repaired soon after, and resumed operations. The
frame structure referred to, was destroyed by fire several years later.
At this date — 1848 — there were about ten principal elevators and
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 383
principal storage houses for grain, the most prominent being the elevator
of Bristol & Company, heretofore mentioned, and also in the order of their
capacity the following:
Orrington Lunt's "White" elevator; capacity about sixty thousand
bushels; building frame; site, corner of Lake and Sout.h Water streets,
opposite what was known as the Sauganash House, a principal hostelry
in those days; power, horse.
Neeley & Lawrence's elevator; capacity fifty thousand bushels; site,
South Water street west of Wells street, now Fifth avenue; power, horse;
building, frame.
George A. Gibbs' elevator; capacity forty thousand bushels; building
frame; site, South Water street, east of State street; power, horse.
Charles Walker's elevator; capacity about fifty-five thousand bushels;
building frame; site, South Water street between Clark and Dearborn
streets; power, horse.
James Peck's elevator; capacity forty thousand bushels ; building frame ;
site adjoining Walker's. This was the next steam power elevator built.
Thomas Richmond and several others also had storage houses of greater
or less capacity, situated either on the south or north sides of the river.
A few of these elevators were supplied with corn shellers, for ear
corn was a staple in those days. The Bristol elevator was the first to
introduce the present system of loading vessels by means of spouts or
chutes, and the steam ear corn conveyor for the purpose of unloading
ear corn from canal boats.
In those primitive days the loading of vessels was principally done
by means of carts, which had a capacity of from fifteen to twenty-five
bushels, and were propelled by hand-power over a staging, and the con-
tents dumped into the hold. The largest vessels then had a capacity of
ten thousand bushels, and to load one of these crafts was considered a
great day's work. The system of unloading ear corn was much more
improved. A conveyor was lowered into the hold of the canal boat and
extended thence at a slight horizontal angle into the elevator. The ear
corn being shoveled onto this conveyor by three men or more, as demanded,
was conveyed into the house, dropping from the conveyor into the sheller,
the shelled corn and cobs then falling through the floor into the basement
beneath — the cobs being used for fuel — the corn passing into the cleaner,
which was an ordinary fanning-mill, and thence by means of the elevator
to the top of the building, where being weighed it was dropped into its
appropriate bin. The buckets used for -conveying the grain up the
elevator held about two quarts of grain.
The power in many elevators was supplied by teams of mules and
horses, which were kept over night or stabled at the tops of these build-
ings. It may be worth while to mention that on one occasion the writer
remembers the enterprising feat of a mule team, which journeyed from
the top to the bottom of one elevator in the night and safely arrived by
means of the stairway upon the lower main floor.
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
Later on such firms as George Steele & Company, Gibbs & Griffin
and R. P. Burlingame & Sturges built and operated elevators of greater or
less capacity.
Steele's elevator was situated on the North Side, near the foot of
North Market street, and had a capacity of about one hundred and fifty
thousand bushels.
George Steele's elevator was subsequently burned down, and Munger
& Armour rebuilt upon this site.
Gibbs & Griffin built and operated an elevator for the unloading of
grain cars for the old Galena & Chicago Union railway; it had a capacity
of about four hundred thousand bushels; it adjoined Steele's elevator.
R. P. Burlingame & Sturges' elevator was situated near the foot of
North State street, its capacity being about two hundred and fifty thousand
bushels.
The following will show when the elevators in Chicago were built,
their capacity when built, and by whom they were owned :
OWNERS.
When
built.
Capacity,
R. P. Burlingame
1852-3
100 coo
Flint & Wheeler
18^
250 coo
«• Elevator A
18^-6
7 co ooo
« « B
1862-7
i 250 coo
Munger & Armour
iS^-6
400 ooo
Gibbs Griffin & Company
iSqq-6
300 coo
Galena
18156
500 ooo
Sturges & Buckingham, Elevator A
i8<cS
I OOO COO
1860
i 500 ooo
Armour Dole & Company. ' A
1 860- 1
I 2OO OOO
1867
800 ooo
« ' C
1 8? V4.
I ^OO OOO
« ' D
1870
i 800 ooo
Vincent, Nelson & Company
1866
i So ooo
R. M. & O. S. Hough
1872
I OOO OOO
Steele & Taylor
186-?
I OOO OOO
Munn, Gill & Company
i8s6
I*7C OOO
Northwestern
1861-2
500 ooo
Union
1 860- 1
A. E. Neeley .
1874.-;
700 ooo
Finley & Ballard
1864
I7r OOO
I. F. Armour
1876
Munger, Wheeler & Company
1880
i t;oo ooo
M
1880
750 ooo
L. Newbury & Company in 1861 converted a store warehouse into
an elevator, but it was burned in 1872, and never rebuilt.
Of the elevator firms, that of Munger, Wheeler & Company is among
the oldest, best known and best thought of by their patrons, the public at
large and especially their employes, who never tire of telling of the kind-
ness of heart which actuates these gentlemen in their conduct toward
those employed by them. An inquiry, not long since, of one of the men
long employed by them, as to their treatment ef those under them, elicited
the enthusiastic reply: "Best men in the world, sir; why, do you know
that I have known the firm to provide a man who was fatally injured in
their service, four days after entering it, with medical attendance while he
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 385
lived, and paid the expenses of burial when he died. Indeed, sir, for four
months they paid that man's expenses, and his wages besides, and they
have always borne the funeral expenses of the men who died in their ser-
vice. After the great fire, sir — although most of their property was
consumed — they paid their men a half month's salary, although there
was due but seven days' pay. They are excellent men, sir, and from long
experience in their service, I know whereof I affirm."
In these days of selfishness and haste, when the principle of human
conduct seems to be the old one intensified : "Every one for himself and
the devil take the hindmost," it was certainly cheering to find men thus
highly eulogized by one of the great class which too often has just grounds
of complaint against employers. Finding this man, who was so ready to
accord merit where it belonged, exceedingly intelligent and an old citizen
withal, we drew him still further into conversation, and asked him if he
could not relate some interesting incidents in his experience. He answered
affirmatively and began with what he pronounced "the most remarkable
dog story ever told," and candor compels us to confess that it was con-
siderable of a tale. Said he: "When I was at the Hiram Wheeler House,
the drip pipes that carried the water from the roof, bursted, and Charles
McGee, then a manufacturer of grain buckets and worker in tin, was
called to repair the damage. McGee had a very fine specimen of the
black and tan dog, which was one of the best 'ratters' ever seen in Chicago
and the animal usually followed its owner wherever he went. On this
occasion McGee was compelled to lower himself by means of a rope from
the roof to the place where the repairs were to be made. Fastening the
rope to a timber he threw the loose end over the wall, which was seen
and believed by the sharp-eyed canine to be a rat leaping over the edge.
To 'think' was to act, and the dog sprang after the imaginary rat, going
over the wall, and down seventy feet to the ground, fortunately striking
upon a heap of decomposed wheat. For an instant the breath was entirely
knocked out of the animal, but quickly recovering, it jumped up and
began to search for the supposed rat.
"But the most amusing incident that I remember," continued our friend,
"was the feat of a horse climbing onto a platform five and a half feet high.
It happened at the Iowa elevator, and in this way: At this elevator there
was but one railroad track used for loading and unloading, and this
ran through the center of the house. The cars were backed in on this track
by a locomotive, and drawn out by horses. On the occasion referred to a
man and his horse had entered for the purpose of taking out some empty
cars. While getting ready to perform the duty, a train was discovered
backing swiftly in. There were the man and horse upon the track, fenced
in on either side by the high platform, and the only thing to be done by
the man was to get upon the platform, and leave the horse to his fate.
Instantly the man leaped into safety, but the horse had no idea of being
mangled to death then and there, and looking at the coming train, and
then at the man on the platform, the intelligent brute concluded to follow
386 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
in the footsteps of his master, which he did, and jumping upon the plat-
form, or rather clambering vipon it, was saved."
The old elevator man was full of stories, but space will scarcely
admit of the publication of more. Like all the men who have seen Chi-
cago develop from nothing into its present greatness, and who have been
actively engaged in some one or more of the vast enterprises which have
made the city great and renowned, he never tires of telling what was,
and instituting comparisons of the earlier with the later days.
3*7
CHAPTER XXVII.
EARLY SETTLERS.
It will be many years before the list of the early settlers of Chicago
will not be examined with the deepest interest. Some of those who con-
tributed to the early growth of the renowned city, have no other claims
to fame than that they came when brave men were most needed, and
amidst privation and hardship performed their part in laying the founda-
tion of the great Chicago. Many when they came here never expected
or desired that their names should ever be chiseled upon a monument or
written upon the page of history. Their lives were unostentatious, but
a beautiful picture of fidelity to duty; and while other lives were flash-
ing like the sun at mid-day, theirs were as subdued as the light of the
most modest star that glitters in the evening sky. Yet such men left their
impress upon the character of our city, and footprints on the sands, which
the speeding years have never effaced. A few of these modestly gleam-
ing lights have not yet gone out, but burn with charming sweetness upon
the boundary line between the present and the past. To those who knew
Chicago in her cradle, these quiet, faithful lives are full of interest, and
for those who have come to sit in the midst of the splendor which they
assisted in creating, they possess a charm that is irresistible and grand.
Many of the names which will be found in the honored roll are
familiar not only to all of our own people but to the entire civilized world,
as those of men who have been daring, faithful and brilliant in the dis-
charge of duty in the varied spheres of human action. No other community
of its age has furnished so many really great men and massive intellects
as Chicago. Her mind has been felt not only upon the progress of the
nation but indeed upon the destinies of the world. Her statesmen, human-
itarians, and commercial representatives have opened up new paths of
progress, and smoothed and beautified the old; and in the following list
will be found representatives of all the distinguished merit we have
mentioned. It will scarcely be necessary to say that the difficulties attending
the compilation of the names of early settlers will readily suggest the almost
impossibility of having it contain the name of every one who is entitled
to the distinguished position of being an earlier settler. Copying a list
prepared by A. S. Hubbard, and adding to it, besides filling in with some
additional details, it is believed that the list is very nearly complete. If any
name properly belonging in it, is not found there, it scarcely need be said
that the omission has not been intentional.
388
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS,
NAMES.
NATIVITY.
REMARKS.
Wm H Brown 7
Conn.
Lemuel Brovven
S S Brown
Mass.
Ohio
N T Brown . . . . .
New York
Arthur G Burley
N. H.
Augustus H. Burley
Alderman iSSo.
Erastus Bowen
Wales
Candidate for Assessor 1837
Teduthan Brown
New York
*j/
E C Brackett
Member of first Engine Company
N. Boilvin
New York
Street Commissioner 1833
Charles Beaubien ....
Michigan
Alexander Beaubien. .......
Stephen N Beaubien
J B Beaubien . .
Ambrose Burnham
City Marshal 1850.
C A. Ballard
Mark Beaubien, Sr
Michigan
Mark Beaubien, Jr
Rev. Stephen T. Badin
France
First Catholic priest
Israel P. Blodgett
Mass.
Tyler K. Blodgett
\Villiam Bond.
Ezra Bond
Lyman Butterfield
Jesse B. Brown
John Bosley
Penn.
Rev. J. M. I. Cyrst
France
Second Catholic priest.
Isaac Cook
New Jersey
Sheriff 1846; Post Master 1854.
James Clark
New York
Benjamin Carver
David Caiwer
(I
Edward W. Casev
«
Town Attorney i8"U.
Ira H. Couch
New York
James B. Carter. .
John P. Chapin
N. H.
Mayor 1846.
John Casey
Ireland
Peter Casey
a
Patrick Casey
u
Edward Casev
((
Thomas Carrig
(i
James Campbell
Penn.
Abel E. Carpenter
Mass.
Philo Carpenter
u
John Dean Caton
New York
Ex-Chief Justice of Illinois.
W. P. Caton
George Chackfield
England
John K. Clark
Virginia
Coroner 1831.
L.J.Clark
Vermont
Norman Clark
u
Timothy B. Clark
New York
First Road Viewer.
William H.Clark
Mass.
Henry A.Clark
New York
Henry B. Clark
u
M. B. Clancy
Charles Cleaver
England
F. G. Conner
New York
Ira Couch
u
William Corrigan
Ireland
James Couch
New York
James H. Collins
.«
Silas B. Cobb
Vermont
Peter Cohen
France
Addison Collins
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
NAMES.
NATIVITY.
REMARKS.
Sidney Abel
Penn.
Post Master 1840
W. H. Adams
New York
Alderman 1849.
John Allen
(i
Thomas Allen
it
Nathan Allen
M
County Commissioner 1836
Wm. Armstrong
W. Indies
Cyrus P. Albee
Vermont
Geo. Armour
England
Isaac N. Arnold
New York
First City Clerk and Member Congress.
Thomas Avers .
Jonathan A. Bailey
Vermont
First Assistant Post Master.
M. Baines
Fire Warden 1836.
Perus Barney
New York
Hamilton Barnes
M
Alderman 1842.
Amos Bailey
Vermont
County Surveyor 1836.
Bennett Bailev
Maryland
Wm. A. Baldwin
New York
H. G. Bailey
Rev. Flavel Bascom
Conn.
Joseph N. Balestier
Vermont
Patrick Ballingall
Scotland
A. S. Bates
New York
City Undertaker.
John Bates
Stephen Bates
H
P. Baumgarden
Germany
George Beaumont
Conn.
Cyrenius Beers
Alderman 1843.
Samuel C. Bennett
New York
School teacher.
Benj. A. Berry
Ohio
First hardware merchant
Thomas Berry
Germany
Dr. J. T. Betts
Illinois
James E. Bishop
New York
Thomas Bishop ....
it
Francis G. Blanchard
England
Rev. F. W. Blatchford
New York
E. W. Blatchford
M
Francis Blake. . . .
S.Sanford Blake
Vermont
Nathan H. Bolles
New York
Delegate to draw up City Charter.
Peter Bolles
«
Alderman 1837.
Heman Bond
N. H.
Daniel L. Boone
Kentucky
Levi D. Boone
"
Ex-Mayor.
Thomas Brown
New York
Alexander Brand
Scotland
Charles B. Brown
Illinois
S. Lock wood Brown
«
Jabez K. Botsford
Conn.
Erastus S. Bowen
New York
Drove first U. S. mail stage into Chicago.
James A. Boyer
Penn.
John K. Boyer
«
Street Commissioner 1835.
Dr. V. A. Boyer
11
Asa F. Bradley. .
N. H.
David Bradley
New York
S. S. Bradley
N. H.
James B. Brad well
England
Ex-Probate Judge.
Frederick A. Brvan
"
Dr. Daniel Brainard
New York
Thomas Brock
Candidate for Alderman, 1837.
Henry Brookes
England
Samuel L. Brookes
"
Henry Brown
New York
Author History of Illinois.
Rufus Brown
A. J. Brown. .. .
New York
Alderman 1852.
39°
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
NAMES.
NATIVITY.
REMARKS.
W L Church
New York
Sheriff 1850.
Candidate for Mayor.
Founder CHICAGO DEMOCRAT.
Candidate High Constable 1837.
Mayor 1847.
Judge election 1837.
Alderman 1844.
Founder CHICAGO AMERICAN.
Judge Superior Court 1845.
Town Treasurer 1835, and Post Master 1851
United States Judge.
Probate Judge 1837.
Mayor 1856.
Ex-City Constable.
State Senator.
President Board of Trade.
Alderman 1842.
Ex-County Agent.
Candidate for Assessor 1837.
First Baptist Clergyman.
First County Sheriff.
Alderman 1841.
S. D. Child
Thomas Church
New York
u
u
U
H
(1
K
U
R.I.
England
Penn.
New York
England
New York
11
Penn.
u
Vermont
New York
u
Maine
New York
Vermont
Conn.
11
John Calhoun
Hans Crocker
David Cox
Charles H Chapman
Thomas O Davis
George M Davis
William H Davis
Eleazer W Densmore
John Davis
Hugh T Dickey
W S Dodson
C. B Dodson
J. Seymour Dodge
George W. Dole
William Doyle
Thomas Drummond
Thomas T. Durant
Dr. Charles V. Dyer
Thomas Dyer
Clarence H. Dyer
John Dye
Nathan Dye
New York
Conn.
11
Penn.
Philip Dean
John Dean
Samuel Debait
Samuel Ellis
Ira B. Eddy
Mass.
Ireland
New York
Illinois
England
Dr. W. B. Egan
Wilev M. Egan
Daniel T. Elston
Daniel Elston
Joel Ellis
Dr. J. W. Eldridge
New York
Mass.
Ireland
New York
Conn.
11
u
Michigan
Mass.
New York
Penn.
Vermont
11
New York
Illinois
Vermont
Mass.
Maine
Conn.
Benjamin Emerson
Peter F. Flood
P. H. Flood
David P. Foot
John Foot
Star Foot
William Forsyth
Charles Follansbee
L. C. Paine Freer
Robert Freeman
Rev. A. B. Freeman
Alexander N. Fullerton..
Martin M. Ford
David M. Ford
Elisha M. Ford
S. V.R.Forbes
Alanson Foilansbee
George F. Foster
Dr.J. H.Foster
J. T- Garland
Alvin N. Gardner.
Mass.
Abram Gale. . .
William H. Gale
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
39 i
NAMES.
NATIVITY.
REMARKS.
Edwin O Gale
Mass.
N. H.
New York
«
N. H.
Canada
New York
Ohio
England
New York
(i
Canada
Indiana
New York
Mass.
New York
N. H.
New York
u
N. C.
New York
u
Mayor 1845.
Alderman 1840.
Sheriff 1838.
Publisher WESTERN RURAL.
Ex-Judge.
Alderman 1837.
Mayor 1853.
Alderman 1845.
Town Trustee 1834.
Wood Inspector 1835.
First Episcopal Minister.
County Treasurer 1834.
Candidate for Assessor 1837.
County 'Clerk 1831 to 1837.
Mayor 1858.
Alderman 1838.
County Treasurer 1851.
Stephen F Gale
Augustus Garrett
John Gage.
Tared Gage
S T Gage
S C George
Milton George
Samuel H. Gilbert
T W Goodrich
Dr T C Goodhue
\Villiam C Goudy
George M Gray
Charles M Gray
Joseph H. Gray
W L Grey
Peter Graft"
Elihu Granger
Loren Graves
Dexter Graves
James Grant
Amos Grannis
Samuel J. Grannis
Samuel \V Grannis
New York
u
u
((
11
Vermont
Henry F. Grannis
Charles D. Grannis
Capt. Russell Green
Albert H. Guild
Jason Gurley .
Isaac Haight
New York
Illinois
England
Ed. B. Hall
Joseph L. Hanson
Oliver C. Hanson
S. Domingo
New York
Vermont
u
M
u
New York
Vermont
Rev. J. W. Hallam
Dr. E. D. Harmon
Dr. Isaac Harmon
Martin D. Harmon
Charles L. Harmon
Edwin R. Harmon
Isaac N. Harmon
Isaac D. Harmon
Benjamin Hall
Virginia
New York
Phil. A. Hall
George Hall
A C Hamilton
Col. R. J. Hamilton
Kentucky
New York
u
u
N. H.
Vermont
Penn.
Vermont
Pol. D. Hamilton
John L. Hanchett
John C. Haines
E. M. Haines
Edward H. Haddock
H. Harrington
Benjamin Harris
Hiram Hastings
John F. Herndon
H. N. Heald...
Daniel B. Heartt
New York
Robert Heartt
392
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
NATIVITY.
REMARKS.
George Heartt
Washington Hesing. . .
William Hickling.
Loren P. Milliard
Thomas S. Hyde
Frank Howe
James L. Howe
R. M. Hough
O. S. Hough
C. C. P.Holden
A. G. Hobbie
John W. Hooker
Dennison Horton
Charles L. P. Hogan. .
John S. C. Hogan
John Holbrook
R.M. Hooley
Fred A. Howe, Sr
Fred A. Howe, Jr. . . . .
Samuel Hoard
E. K. Hubbard, Sr
E. K. Hubbard, Jr
Henry G. Hubbard
Ahira Hubbard
Theodore Hubbard. . . .
Augustus G. Hubbard.
Carlos C. Hubbard
Oscar M. Hubbard
Gen'l. David Hunter. .
E. E. Hunter..
Bensley Huntoon
George M. Huntoon . . .
Alonzo Huntington. . .
James O. Humphrey. .
Hiram Hugunin
Dr. Peter D. Hugunin.
Leonard C. Hugunin. .
Daniel Hugunin
Robert Hugunin
John C. Hugunin
Edward Hugunin
Edgar Hugunin
Eber Hubbard
Chester Ingersoll
Thomas C. James
Samuel Jackson
Carding Jackson
Oren Jackson
Cyrus M. Jackson
William W. Jackson.. .
Seth Johnson
Sanford Johnson
John Johnson
Peter Johnson
Willard Jones
William Jones
Benjamin Jones
Fernando Jones .
K.K.Jones
Lathrop Johnson
John Jackson
Norman B. Judd
Joseph Jefferson
New York
Germany
England
New York
Mass.
New York
Vermont
New York
New Jersey
Conn.
Ireland
Conn.
Mass.
Conn.
Illinois
Mass.
Vermont
«
New York
Virginia
Kentucky
Mass.
Vermont
New York
New
York
Virginia
Maryland
Mass.
11
11
New York
County Clerk 1861.
Alderman 1841.
Alderman 1855.
Alderman 1861.
County Commissioner 1845.
First Post Master.
State Senator 1840, and Post Master 1865.
Judge election 1878.
j County Commissioner 1834; County
| Treasurer 1837.
Judge election 1837.
President of Town Trustees 1835.
Candidate for Alderman 1837.
Alderman 1847.
Alderman 1837.
New York
First City Attorney and Member Congress.
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS
393
NAMES.
NATIVITY.
REMARKS.
Gholson Kercheval..'
Kentucky
New York
11
11
ti
a
tt
it
11
Illinois
New York
Canada
H
u
County Commissioner 1832.
Treated first case Asiatic cholera in America.
Candidate for Mayor 1849.
Clerk Superior Court 1849.
County Treasurer 1835.
First Town Clerk.
Town Trustee 1835.
Alderman 1846.
Alderman 1847.
Ex-Fire Commissioner.
Member State Legislature.
Candidate for Alderman 1837.
Sheriff 1842.
Alderman 1856.
Mayor 1840.
Alderman 1848.
Alderman 1846.
Town Trustee 1835.
Judge of election 1837.
Dr John A. Kennicott
Dr Levi Kennicott
Dr. William H. Kennicott. . .
Dr. Jonathan A. Kennicott.. .
Harlow Kitnball
Martin N Kimball
Walter Kimball
I lenry Kimball
H W Knickerbocker
Tuthill Kino-
Henry Kin01
Dr E S Kimberlv
George E Kimberlv
A. V Knickerbocker
Ira Kimberlv
Nathan King
Byram King
S. S Lathrop
Claude LaFromboisj
11
N. H.
Ireland
France
Maryland
Mass.
England
New York
William M. Larrabee
Elisha B. Lane
Michael Lantry
James Lane
Fredrick Letz
George K. Letz
Albert G. Leary
James M. Lowe
Samuel J. Lowe, Jr
William Lill
Solomon Lincoln
John R. Livingston
Horatio G. Loomis
Vermont
England
New Yqrk
Ireland
New York
England
New York
Germany
Mass. "
New York
Conn.
New York
England
N. H.
New York
Ireland
New York
Canada
Henrv Loomis
Samuel J. Lowe
James Lon^
Alexander Lloyd.. .
Oliver Lozier
John Ludbv
Curtiss Lum
H. H.Magie
Louis Malzacher
Joel Manning
Dr. Phillip Maxwell
Edward Manierre
George Manierre
James A. Marshall
Svlvester Marsh
Alexander McDaniels
Ed. McConnell
John McHarrv. . ..
Charles McClure
Josiah E. McClure
Wilson McClintock
James McClintock
394
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
NAMES.
NATIVITY.
REMARKS.
Jason McCord
New York
Ireland
Scotland
N. H.
New Jersey
Vermont
Canada
Kentucky
New York
Ireland
New York
it
(i
Conn.
Illinois
Ireland
New York
Ireland
Germany
France
Conn.
Alderman 1841 and 1843.
Alderman 1842.
Alderman 1839.
Mayor 1838.
Fire Warden 1836.
Coroner 1836; Alderman 1840.
School Inspector.
Alderman 1839.
Judge of election 1837.
Alderman 1851.
40
First Mayor.
Probate Judge 1839 to 1847.
Ex-Town Collectar.
First Trustee and Indian Agent 1833.
Alderman 1854.
Town Treasurer 1835.
Judge election 1837.
Judge U. S. Court of Claims.
Charles McDonnell
Thomas McGrath
James McKay
George W. Merrill
Joseph Meeker
Ira Miltimore
Joseph Michel
Buckner S. Morris
N. B. Morton
Patrick R. Morgan
Luther Morton
Charles Morrison
Ephraim Morrison, Sr
James M. Morrison
Orsetnus Morrison
Ephraim Morrison, Jr. ... ..
Ezekiel Morrison
Daniel Morrison
Flavel Mosley
John Murphy
Hiram P. Murphy
James K. Murphy
E. H. Mulford
Patrick Murphy
Rudolph v Migleley
Mathias Meyer
N. L. F. Monroe
R. N. Murray
Leo Mever
Illinois
New York
u
England
Walter L. Newberry
E. C. Nichols
Pattieson Nickalls
William Ninson
John Noble
New York
England
Mark Noble
Nelson R. Norton
William B. Ogden
New York
Ohio
Conn.
France
Ireland
u
u
11
Kentucky
England
Scotland
Vermont
Maine
N. H.
New Jersey
R. I. '
Canada
England
Ohio
Virginia
Mahlon D. Ogden
Kingsley R. Olmsted
A. L. Osborne
William Osborne
James T. Osborne
Michael Ouilmette
Peter O'Rourke, Sr. ...
Peter O'Rourke, Jr
James O'Rourke
Thomas O'Neil
John O'Neil
T.J. V.Owen
John C. Outhet
John Patterson
Seth Paine
F. D. Park
J. K. Palmer
Charles M. Pettitt
P. F. W. Peck
Ebenezer Peck
Joseph Peacock
Gustavus C. Pearsons
Hiram Pearsons
George T. Pearsons. . . .
Francis Peyton
Lucien Pevton
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS
395
NAMES.
NATIVITY.
REMARKS.
New York
u
H
N. H.
u
New York
Vermont
New York
Penn.
New York
Ireland
New York
tt
Candidate for Assessor 1837.
Alderman 1837.
Agent Canal Land,
State Senator.
Mayor 1839.
First City Surveyor.
Ex-Constable.
Fire Warden 1836.
Fire Warden 1834.
Removed the Indians from Chicago*
Mayor 1861.
Ex-Chief Justice Wisconsin.
Alderman 1845,
Mayor 1841.
Mayor 1844.
Sheriff 1834 and 1836.
Candidate for Sheriff 1837.
Judge 1851.
Jeremiah Price
Smith D Pierce ' . .
Asa Pierce
Cornelius Price
Asahel Pierce
Hibbard Porter
\Villiam G Powers.
J. W. Pool
Rev Jeremiah Porter
Redmond Prindiville
Eli S. Prescott
Peter Pruyne
George N. Powell
F. H Porter
New York
J. H. Poor
H. C. Parson
T. Perkins
Mass
James K. Paul
Socrates Rand
New York
Penn.
Mass.
B. W Raymond
James H Rees
Stephen Rexford
Henry Rhines
James T Richards
New York
James W. Reed
Edward K Rodders
Mass.
New York
William P Roberts
Samuel Resique
John C Rue
New York
Conn.
Mass.
New York
u
Scotland
Jacob Russell
Col J B F Russell
George F Rumsey
Julien S Rumsey
Edward H. Rudd
Hu»'h Ross
E. G. Rvan
W. W. Sattonstall
William Sattonstall
Conn.
New York
Michigan
Maine
New Jersey
New York
• Conn.
Vermont
Conn.
Vermont
Conn.
J. Young Scammon
Smith J Sherwood
Morgan- L. Shapley
F. C. Sherman
Alanson S. Sherman
Silas W. Sherman
Ezra L. Sherman
Oren Sherman
Francis T. Sherman
A. S. Sherman
John Shriglev
James Sinclair
England
New York
Mass.
Ohio
Vermont
New Jersey
John Sinclair
E. Simmons
Mark Skinner
Dr. D. S. Smith
T. W. Smith
Charles B. Smith
James A. Smith
New York
Mass.
Scotland
J. F. Smith
George Smith
M. L.Satterlee
396
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
NAMES.
NATIVITY.
REMARKS.
Jeremiah Smith.
First County Clerk.
Assessor 1833.
Ex- Collector of the Pott
Alderman 1855.
Alderman 1839.
Post Master 1846.
Sheriff 1840.
Alderman 1839.
Ex-Police Commissioner.
Alderman 1853.
Alderman 1837.
Judge of election 1837.
Alderman 1839.
County Treasurer 1836.
Town Trustee 1836.
William Smith
Walter Stowell
William See ....
Virginia
Vermont
Ireland
New York
Conn.
Mass.
Penn.
New York
a
<(
H
u
u
«
11
Tenn.
New York
Germany
New York
George W. Snow
W. B. Snowhook
S. F. Spalding
Isaac Speer
Giles Spring
John Spence
James Spence
Sylvester Sexton
M. C. Stearns
James* W. Steele
W. H. Stowe
H. M. Stowe
Hart L. Stewart
Dr. John J. Stuart
H. O. Stone
James M. Strode
Ashbel Steele
Clement Stoce
William Stuart
Alanson Sweet
R. M. Sweet
New York
Ireland
New York
(i
(i
(i
(i
«
H
Virginia
Conn.
New York
u
u
Conn.
u
(t
John Sweeney
Willis Scott
Willard Scott
Stephen S. Scott. . . .
Hugh Short
Mancel Talcott, Jr
Edward B. Talcott .
Mancel Talcott, Sr.. .
Edmund D. Taylor
Solomon Taylor.. .....
W.W.Taylor
Abner Taylor.
Deodat A. Taylor. .
Anson H. Taylor..
Henry Taylor
Francis H.Taylor.
Charles H. Taylor.. .
A. W. Taylor
Robert Thompson..
Enoch Thompson.
.
James B. Tuttle...
Mass.
S. C.
A. M. Talley
Dr. John T. Temple.
Dr. Peter Temple.
Oliver H. Thompson
Vermont
Mass.
Vermont
New York
u
Mass.
Penn.
S. G. Trowbridge.
Robinson Tripp.
Nelson Tuttle.. . .
Lucius G. Tuttle
Fredrick Tuttle...
Thomas E. Tucker
Henry Tucker. . .
John Turner. . .
Norman K. Towner.
Peter L. Updike.
Sew Jersey
Mass.
J. M. Underwood..
Henrv Vanderbogart
Daniel W. Vaughan
Robert Vial..
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS,
NAMES.
NATIVITY.
REMARKS.
Samuel Vial
Alderman 1837.
Second Coroner 1832.
Ex-Member of Congress and Mayor.
First white male child born in Ft. Dearborn,
President Town Trustees 1836.
Sheriff 1856.
Post Master 1850.
Secretary of Legation, London 1861.
Fire Warden 1836.
Mayor and Member of Congress.
Fire Warden 1834.
Member first Board of Education 1837.
County Commissioner 1832.
Rev Jesse Wall e.~
Virginia
H
Samuel \Valkins
lixland
W \V Watt es
Thomas \Vatkins
J H Walker
Vermont
New York
Conn.
England
Charles Walker
C H Walker
Seth Wadhatns
Julius \Vadsworth
E S Wadsworth
Samuel Wayman
John \Vatkins
Seth P. Warner
New York
England
Germany
William Wayman
John \Vellmaker
Elijah Wentworth Jr
John Wentworth
N. H.
N. S.
Ireland
M
John B. Weir
George E. Weir
Patrick Welch
Michael Welch
A. B. Wheeler
New York
Henry Whitehead
England
Charles Whitlock
Merriweather L. Whistler.. . .
Henry R. Whipple
Illinois
New York
Vermont
New York
Conn.
Dr. Tolman Wheeler
Joel H. Wicker
Charles G. Wicker
Eli B. Williams
E. F.Wellington .
John L. Wilson
New York
u
u
England
Ne\v York
Richard L. Wilson
Charles L. Wilson
Arthur W. Windett.
James Winship
Alexander Wolcott
Conn.
Vermont
Daniel Worthington
William Worthingham
James H. Woodworth
New York
Mass.
H
ll
Vermont
John Wright.
John S. Wright
Timothy Wright
Walter "Wright
Truman G. Wright
Peter Warden
J. Ambrose Wight. . .
Thomas White
Ireland
Charles Wisencraft
Thomas Wright
New York
Mass.
Edward Wright
James Walker . . .
William Weatherford.
Solomon Wells
George W. Wilde
39*
CHAPTER XXVIII.
A PROPHECY.
We cannot resist inserting the following prophecy made by Colbert
and Chamberlain, in the shadow of the blackened ruins of the ninth of
October, 1871. They wrote: "London, with a population diminished more
than one-third by the plague of the previous year, and demoralized by the
licentiousness of the times of the cavaliers, recovered within five years from
a destruction quite as complete as that of Chicago. New York was visited
in 1835 by a conflagration, much less destructive to be sure than this of
ours, but it was preceded by pestilence in 1832 and 1834, and followed by
the great commercial revulsion of 1837; in spite of all which disasters,
New York grew in that decade from a city of two hundred and two
thousand people to one of three hundred and twelve thousand. The
argument from this is, that a general conflagration is not necessarily fatal
to a city, nor even a long-continued check upon its forward career. Lon-
don continued to grow rapidly because it had made itself the center of an
immense ocean commerce, and the metropolis of a prosperous country.
New York bade defiance to a three-fold disaster for a like reason. Chicago
has fastened upon the trade of the great Northwest with chains that can-
not be unbound, and will therefore grow with that rapidly developing
country, and without any serious hindrance from what has happened.
Individual fortunes have been, in some cases, irretrievably lost, though
the way in which these men rebound, even from out the slough of despair,
is something wonderful; but the city must still go marching on. The
West must have her for uses which no other locality can subserve, and
which no other city, even if it had the advantage of location, could
prepare itself to subserve in thrice the time it will take Chicago to
recuperate. The produce of the West and the capital of the East are
alike interested in keeping Chicago the metropolis of the Northwest — an
empire already vaster, and much more rapidly growing, than that of Great
Britain at the time London was destroyed.
People who come to Chicago and take a survey of her present
apparent desolation are shocked by it, and go away saying that Chicago
cannot be rebuilt in less than a generation. They forget that Chicago was
a generation in attaining her late magnificence simply because the West
was that length of time in growing to its present proportions; and that
the question of how long it will take to rebuild Chicago — the West being
still intact around her — is simply a question of how long it will require
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 399
for the country to produce the bricks and the stone to lay up her walls
withal. It is estimated by those competent to judge of this that three
years will be adequate to the work ; in other words, that as soon as the
grand buildings of the railway corporations, the city, and the United
States government, can be completed in a solid manner, they will already
be surrounded by a complete city, equal in its capacity for the accommoda-
tion of business to that which fell in the great conflagration. The population
will also, by that time, have shot considerably past the mark of September,
1871; but as certain fine theaters, churches, and residences will still be
behind, it is better, in order to be within the bounds of moderation, to set
the period of Chicago's complete recuperation at five years from the date
of her disaster — the eighth of October, 1876.
We have shown in a previous chapter that the average annual rate
of increase in the value of property in Chicago, during the ten years (pre-
ceding 1871, has been ten and a half per cent, which compounds at sixty-six
and a half per cent, in five years. Thus, reckoning only the ordinary
growth of the city, and making no allowance for the extraordinary
stimulus occasioned by the sudden necessities of the present crisis, the
value of property lost by the fire — one-third of the whole — would be more
than recovered by the Fall of 1876. It may be argued that this ratio of
increment will be diminished, owing to the lack of facilities for doing
business, and the consequent diversion of trade to competing towns; also
that these towns, particularly St. Louis, are sharper competitors than
London had in 1666; but this, if true, applies only in a small measure.
The country had already elected Chicago as the capital of the Northwest,
and by converging in her the many railroads which were built for accom-
modating the traffic of that section, fixed her as the seat of that traffic
more firmly far than a State statute and a million or two of dollars in
public buildings, fix the capital of a State in Albany or Springfield.
Saying nothing of the four hundred millions of dollars of capital still
represented in the buildings, lands, and merchandise of Chicago, there
are three hundred million dollars invested in her railroads, every dollar
of which is vitally interested in keeping the traffic of the Northwest
upon these roads. New York commercial capital is interested in the same
direction, for Chicago is by all odds New York's best customer, and what-
ever trade should be diverted from Chicago to St. Louis, or Cincinnati,
would also be diverted from New York to Philadelphia. With all these
artificial influences, and the same powerful natural influences which fixed
Chicago where she is, working together for her restoration, it will not be
possible for other influences to distract much of her trade or delay her
growth in population a single year, or hinder the reconstruction of her edifices
beyond the date which we have set down — the eighth of October, 1876.
The disaster to Chicago will not probably delay at all the enlarge-
ment of the Niagara and St. Lawrence Canals, and the deepening of the
channels at each end of Lake Huron, both of which measures for the im-
provement of navigation and the substitution of larger vessels — and hence
400 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
cheaper rates — for the grain traffic of the country, are to be undertaken at
government expense. These measures, though not at the expense of
Chicago, will still benefit Chicago greatly by making the production
of grain more profitable to the farmer, who, as a consequence, will not
only raise more grain, but have more money to spend in Chicago. At
the same time the improvement of this water route will increase Chicago's
facilities as an importing city — a function which she had just begun to
develop extensively at the time the disaster struck her. There are also
two or more trunk railways from the East proposing to enter Chicago to
compete for the trade of the Northwest. These, if completed — and there
is no reason why they should be interrupted by what has happened — will
still further increase the business of this metropolis, as will also the four
or five proposed new routes diverging into the grain and stock producing
country, and the route by way of Evansville to Mobile, to be finished
early in 1872, which ought to bring in bond all the West India goods
consumed in the Northwest, the merchants of Chicago deriving from this
trade the large profits of the importers, instead of the small ones of the
simple jobber.
At the same time that this increase in trade is going on — subject to
the drawbacks already mentioned — certain lines of manufactures may be
established to increase considerably, for instance, those of all materials
used in building and furnishing stores and houses, and those of light arti-
cles, the help for making which can be recruited from the ranks of the
shop girls and boys thrown out of employment by the fire, or forced by
the hard times upon such industrial pursuits.
The city may be expected, then, to make a greater show of railway
and shipping warehouses than before the fire. The streets, except a few
of them, will not be built up with stores so continuously as before the fire,
but the amount of facilities for business, especially for wholesale business,
will be greater than it was; while the public buildings, as the postoffice,
custom house, city hall, railway passenger depots, chamber of commerce,
etc., will present an appearance corresponding to a city three or four times
as great as that for which the destroyed structures were built. Public
libraries and galleries of art will have to wait longer, as will also the park
improvements which the citizens were projecting on such a mammoth
scale; but the theaters, at the date specified will have just about recovered
the number and magnitude which they had attained before the fire, and
that, be it recollected, was two-fold greater than one year before, and at
least four-fold greater than any other Western city could boast.
Let it not be understood, however, that fortunes will be rebuilt within
any such period, or that the private luxury and elegance of yesterday will
be re-established. The business marts will be humming again simplv
because they must, but in many cases other men will preside over them,
while some who worked with the head yesterday will work with the
hands then. The most of the business men of Chicago, however, have
too much pluck, and also too much of the quality called brass for that.
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 401
They will make a shift — indeed two-thirds of them have already made a
shift to resume • their places as proprietors, and get capital from some-
where— the Lord, who tempers the wind to the shorn lamb, knows where.
A single case illustrates-this. The writer, wandering among the mournful
ruins of the North Division, on the day after that quarter was destroyed,
met an acquaintance whom he accosted with the usual salutation: 'How
did you come out?' The answer was: 'Yesterday morning I had a ware-
house over there with thirty thousand dollars' worth of wool in it; I had a
fine hoase, well furnished, for my home, and two others to help out my
income. To-day, I've got what I have on my back; my wife the same —
that is all.' 'Are you going to give it up?' we asked. 'No, sir,' he
answered. A fortnight later we encountered the same friend dashing
down the street at great speed. He had got track of a man who would,
he thought, put up a building for him, and was going to have the contract
made before night. He was buoyant and enthusiastic.
Probably the reader of this history who visits Chicago five years
hence, w. . i find this man in full blast in his new warehouse, not with
thirty, but with sixty or ninety thousand dollars' worth of wool in store,
and not w.th two, but four houses to rent; for it is such pluck as this that
wins in the West.
This visitor will see, besides the twenty railroads which already con-
verge at Chicago, the six important lines now projected, also entering
the heart of the city, probably by sunk tracks, and through viaducts at
every street-crossing. He will see, let us hope, a consolidation of all the
passenger stations into three at most, and will be told that the system of
omnibus tolls upon travelers has been abolished.
He will see the streets of the central portion of the city — the burnt
district of the South and part of that of the North Divisions — raised from
two to three feet above their present grade, and from ten to fifteen above
the original level of the prairie. As a concomitant of this, he will see a
good portion of our sewerage reversed in its course, as the river has
already been served. The buildings which line these streets he will find
to be chiefly of brick, and of soberer appearance than the gay, cream-
colored stone — treacherous beauty! — which so dtlighted his eye in the
Summer of '71. He will mark, nevertheless, the solidity and substantiality
of everything, and will query if, after all, the painted red brick fronts,
relieved at intervals by cream-colored walls from Milwaukee, or rich, natural
red from Philadelphia or Baltimore, or light brown sandstone from Cleve-
land, or gray granite from Duluth, or ruddy brown sandstone from Lake
Superior, or the censured, but not entirely tabooed limestone from Jolier, be
not, after all, in their endless variety, more cheerful than the stately monot-
ony of the old era. He will see few mansard roofs or ornate cornices, but
will, nevertheless, be pleased with the brightness and newness of every-
thing; and since the beauty of a thing consists, in great part, of its fitness
for the place which it occupies, the visitor will be, or, at least should be,
inclined to pronounce favorably concerning the beauty of the new Chicago.
^02 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
He will notice that the pavements are, as in '71, notable for their
smoothness and silence under the wheel, being made of wooden blocks,
as now, or of the asphalt-rock concrete, in making which we are improv-
ino- so much every day. He will see sidewalks built of this material,
being laid in the filled districts over brick arches; and he will find, on
passing under these sidewalks that the vaults, thus formed, are absolutely
fire-proof receptacles for such articles as may be consigned to them.
He will see upon the lake shore an inclosed harbor of refuge, lined
on two sides with slips for the accommodation of vessels of greater draft
and tonnage than have ever come to this port hitherto. Passing up the
river that is, down it toward the Mississippi — he will find its docks devoted
more to the unloading and storing of iron, coal, and heavy merchandise
than they now are, much of the merchandise being brought in on lighter
scows from the outer harbor. He will look in vain for any yards 01
depositories for lumber within two and a half miles of the river's mouth.
He will not find the business of the great Union Stock Yards much
increased, though he knows that that was almost the only interest which
did not suffer by the fire. On asking the reason for this, he will learn
that, as the country for grazing has been pushed gradually westward and
southward, the cities which sprang up thereaway, particularly Kansas
City, had naturally become, to a considerable degree, the distributing
points of cattle for the East; but that the increased consumption of meats
in Chicago and the district supplied from Chicago, had kept up the demand
at about the old figures.
He will see no greater area covered by Chicago than he saw five
years before, except at the suburbs along the railroads, whither people of
moderate means will go to build wooden houses, and avoid what many
will doubtless call the odious fire ordinance, which will prohibit all wooden
houses within the city limits. He will see steam or compressed air sub-
stituted for horse-power upon the most of the street-railways.
He will see a population greater by nearly one hundred thousand
than that which Uncle Sam's census-taker found in 1870. These people
will look hard-worked, and those of the old lot will seem more than five
years older than they did on a September morning in 1871. They may
well be advised, at that time, to pause a little in their hard chase after
material things, and consider those of the heart, the mind, and the immortal
soul; and if the visitor be of a missionary turn, he cannot throw his sub-
jects into a tender mood more effectually than by reminding them of the
night of the eighth of October, '71, and of how the world stood by Chi-
cago in that sad time.
But he will, on the whole, be proud of the new Chicago, from what-
ever quarter he may hail. He will find her changed from the Chicago
of yesterday in such manner as the wild and wanton girl, of luxurious
beauty, and generous, free ways, is changed when, becoming a wife, a
great bereavement, or the pangs and burdens of maternity overtake her,
robbing her cheek of its rich flush, but at the same time ripening her beauty,
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 4°3
elevating, deepening, expanding her character, and imbuing her with a
susceptibility of feeling, a consciousness of strength, and an earnestness
of purpose which she knew not before.
When thus transformed, the new Chicago shall go, on the centennial
of our nation's birth, to join her sisters in laying the laurel wreath upon
the mother Columbia's brow, she will be greeted with signal warmth by
each and all of them, and welcomed back from out her vale of affliction
as one who had suffered that she might be strong."
This prophecy, to us, is most interesting reading. At the time it was
made it doubtless appeared fanciful to thousands who have lived to see
many parts of it more than fulfilled. As has already been shown, it was
not correct as to the future of the Union Stock Yards, which have had
such a wonderful growth, and which must continue to grow in the future.
Nothing can rob Chicago of her position in the live stock trade any more
than she can be robbed of her position as a grain center.
Unfortunately, as we think, the prophecy in regard to the character
of the buildings which were to take the place of those consumed, has not
proved true. Chicago did not learn from her great conflagration some
of the lessons which it plainly taught. In that fire and in all similar fires,
the fact that brick is the safest building material, was fully demonstrated.
It does not adorn a city as granite and marble do, but safety is a much
more valuable consideration than splendor. Our buildings are also too
high. Surprise is often expressed at the good fortune which the fire
department enjoys in extinguishing fires among old wooden buildings.
" If it had been in the business part of the city, instead of among a lot of
shanties, the fire would have consumed several buildings," is a representa-
tive expression. It is very apt, too, to be an expression of the truth, and
the reason is that in the business sections the buildings are so high that in
any considerable conflagration the water is converted into steam before
it reaches them, and no water strikes the fire. It is noticeable, too, that
some buildings are being improved by adding mansard roofs, the most
dangerous kind of fire trap that was ever introduced in a city. It should
not be allowed.
The matter of pavements was correctly pictured by the enthusiastic
prophet, but it is not likely that wooden pavements will be used in the
business portions of the city many years longer. They are not fitted for
heavy travel, and stone must take the place of wood sooner or later. The
first cost would be considerable, but no doubt of the final economy of
the change can for a moment be entertained.
CHAPTER XXIX.
PUBLIC CHARITIES.
Our Christian civilization sheds no brighter or sweeter light than is
reflected in its softening of the human heart toward humanity in distress.
Steadily has the world advanced and developed in this divinest of charac-
teristics. When the Knights Hospitaller, and later the Knights Templar,
came into existence, mankind was starving for sympathy and love, and
hundreds were dying for fraternal care. For seven hundred years these
orders were striving to plant flowers along the rugged pathway of human
life, to smooth the pillow of the dying and to tenderly bury the dead.
Their work was like a sunburst on the midnight, so novel was its nature
and so angelic was its influence. How differently is the human race
situated to-day. The brilliant features of David and Jonathan, and Damon
and Pythias, blaze in charming beauty on every page of modern history.
In these were represented isolated instances of the acknowledged brother-
hood of man. Now brotherhood is universal. Its recognition, which was
once so rare that it was like an Italian garden in the snow-beds of Lapland —
like a cooling zephyr kissing the burning surface of the desert, is as a melting
and diffusion of the heart of God into a sky of Summer sunset magnificence.
The chord that links man to man, man to angels, and angels to God, now
vibrates from limit to limit whenever a heart from here to heaven weeps a
tear. Joseph Mazzini, moving among his kind like a soft sunbeam streaming
from the first glow of the morning, and laughing amidst the frowning
rocks — his character radiant with love and sympathy, and paling the blaze
of beauty which nature had kindled in the gardens of his native Italy;
Father Matthew, with his great heart full of sunshine and God; John
Howard, so full of heaven that he left it glowing in every footprint he
made; Florence Nightingale — one of the silver links that chain the earth
to the beautiful yonder— the sweet flower blooming among the briars;
and our own George Peabody, are but a few stars in the sky of to-day
whose azure background is ablaze with a confluence of radiant spots of
philanthrophy and fraternal love to all mankind. It was a rich legacy
to have been a fellow countryman of George Peabody. The monument
to his memory cost eight and a half millions of dollars, and he paid for it
himself. It stands upon two continents, and the poor of London and the
children of America gather in its shadow, and thank God for the nation
that gave George Peabody to the world. The queen of England did
him the honor to present him with her portrait, and he did the queen the
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 405
honor to accept it. Down in the human heart of the nineteenth century
there is a burning love for humanity. Sometimes we do not realize it
ourselves. But it is there; it burns like fire in the open grate in mid- Winter;
it glows as the sun at noonday ; it is as charming as the radiance of love
can make it. Some twenty years ago, in mid-Winter, the darkness of the
night was kindled int.o a glare by the burning of a ferry bout, which took
fire when midway between Philadelphia and Camden. The mad flames
leaped into the cold air, like tongues of fire from the bottomless pit; they
painted the skies with the red shadow of reckless frenzy, and in the light
the grinning skeleton of death was reflected in the cakes of ice upon the
surface of the Delaware in horrible distinctness. Rapidly the flames
spread, and soon the ill-fated boat appeared like a moving mountain of
flame. Now a stream of fire would shoot up toward the stars, and laugh-
ing, seem to taunt the mass of flame below for its indolence; then, as if to
resent the indignity, another column would leap still higher, as if deter-
mined "now or never to sit beside the pale-faced moon." The sportive
sparks rode on the wind, and frolicked together as if it were a May-day
festival to the two hundred human beings on the deck of that burning
boat. The passengers ran hither and thither, the flames streaming from
many as they ran; men fell upon their knees and called to God for mercy;
women screamed in the agony of despair; mothers called frantically for
their lost dear ones; children were crying for parents; all was confusion
and horror, and the multitude upon the wharf looked on the feast of death
in breathless agony. Soon a steady stream of immortal souls began to
pour from the holocaust into eternity. Men leaped for life, but into death,
upon the glistening ice; women shot like burning meteors from the flames
upon the frozen bier that encased the floundering boat; mothers hurled
their burning children overboard, and then followed them to the gate of
hei'.ven; and the mangled and roasted dead began to lay in heaps upon the
ice. But the boa.t was headed toward the wharf; she increased her
speed; the wheels beat the ice away, and between two winrows of burn-
ing corpses she was bearing to safety the fifty men and women that yet
remained on board. Nearer and nearer she came ; every heart on the wharf
was fluttering with expectancy; every man was eager to catch the ropes
and place the gang planks; she almost touched the wharf, and a thousand
strong in/en rushed forward with outstretched arms to catch the imperiled
who were crowding toward life, but the boat seemed to be swinging away ;
she was; she was drifting out into the stream. "Why don't you put her
in?" shrieked ten thousand voices to the pilot. "It will set the shipping
on fire," wa» the reply. An old sailor, who looked as if all the humanity
had been crushed out of him by the storms, and as if his heart had been
baked by blazing suns, shouted: "What is all the shipping in Philadelphia
worth compared to those men and women vou have got on board that boat,
you scoundrel?" and an amen to the sentiment of love burst from
twenty thousand throats, and frightened that boat to the dock. That is
the feeling of the nineteenth century. Love is universal; fraternity is not
j.o6 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
circumscribed; culture has kindled the embers of brotherhood into a
quenchless flame, and in its sweet warmth heaven plays about every heart,
glows in every pathway, illumines every home. True, there are hearts and
homes that do not feel it, but there are homes, too, in which the sunbeams
never laugh and play; the shutters are kept barred; the curtains are never
raised. Floods of sunshine without are ever trying to melt their way in,
but never succeed. Thus it is with the heart or home that never feels the
warming touch of sympathizing love. It is as free and brilliant as the light
of noonday, and bubbles in the heart like a never-failing spring amidst the
rocks. From the hill-tops the birds mingle their music with the soft
throbbings of the human heart and the melodies of angelic choristers,
and love's harmonious strains fill the valleys of the fields and trill through
the arches of the universe; on the flowers and crystal streams, in the
morning's daybreak and in the evening's twilight, twinkling in the sweet
light of the stars and in the gentle laughter of the moon, on all nature,
animate or inanimate, there is the gentle reflection of the joys, the smiles,
the divinity of love. It is this universal recognition of man's universal
brotherhood that builds our palaces for the poor, the infirm, the sick, the
tempted and the helpless. A city may be built with the costliest of mar-
ble; its streets may be paved with gold; its mansions may shadow the
magnificence of the most resplendent kingly palaces; its art galleries may
be never so complete and elegant, and its intelligence never so attractive,
if its poor and blind and halt were not handsomely cared for, the world
would be unable to behold its splendors through the cloud that enveloped
it. Rome was brilliant, but when her battered soldiers and tattered poor
gathered to demand recognition of their humanity, their liberty and their
right to live, and when she murdered Manlius because his heart went so
strongly out in sympathy for the oppressed, that he was prompted to de-
clare that so long as a pound of his fortune remained, not another Roman
should be imprisoned because he was poor, her art galleries ceased to
charm, her wealth ceased to influence, her power began to wane, and
Rome hurled herself from the very glitter of noonday into the gloom of
midnight. Chicago has been adorned by her wealth and enterprise until
she is the rival of any city in the world, in maturing beauty and refine-
ment. But with her elegant stores, palatial residences, boulevards, parks,
works of art, gigantic industries, and the very general independence of
her people, her glory does not end. She has elegant retreats for those
upon whom misfortune has laid its weighty hand. While the hands of her
citizens are busy in the work of making the grandest city in the world,
their hearts are always hoarding an exhaustless store of sympathy and
love to respond to the demands of necessity; and those institutions which
have sprung from this trait of Chicago character will now be described,
One of our most useful and noble charities is the Foundlings' Home,
located on Wood street, near Madison. This institution was founded by
Dr. George E. Shipman, a gentleman of noble nature and high character,
whose attention was attracted to the need of such a charitv in 1868-9, by
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 407
being called in a professional capacity to visit a child about ten days old,
which had been found on one of our wharves, on a cold Winter's night,
stark naked. It was with the utmost difficulty that any charitable institu-
tion then existing in the city could be induced to receive this little waif,
and this should not be a cause of surprise. No institution not purposely
established for such work could do it. It is peculiar in character, and its
special requirements can be met only through special provision. At the
time this case was brought to the notice of Dr. Shipman, the coroner
informed him that he held an inquest on about one foundling a day. But
although the Doctor was deeply impressed with the importance of making
provision for this helpless class, and found a similar feeling among those
with whom he conversed upon the subject, nothing was done until
January, 1871, when Dr. Shipman opened the Home at 54 South Green
street. Some friends sent him seventy-seven dollars and thirty-eight
cents, and a patient contributed one hundred dollars on the day the Home
was opened, and with that capital and Dr. Shopman's own purse and kind
Christian heart, this great charity began existence. Within two months
the quarters on Green street were found to be inadequate, and the Home
was moved into two two-story houses at the corner of Randolph and
Sangamon streets.
In the Spring of 1872 the Relief and Aid Society proposed to con-
tribute ten thousand dollars toward the erection of a building, upon
condition that Dr. Shipman would have the institution incorporated. The
proposition being entirely acceptable, the Home was incorporated, the lot
on which the Home now stands purchased, and the present building,
costing about fifty thousand dollars, erected, and occupied in May, 1874.
The Relief and Aid Society contributed altogether thirty thousand
dollars, and the balance of the money required for the erection of the
building was donated by citizens, much of it being collected by the Ladies'
Union Aid Society. Dr. Shipman has been Superintendent, and has
really had absolute control of this charity from its inception.
Since it was opened, it has cared for over two thousand foundlings,
and expended over a hundred thousand dollars. Many of the children
have been adopted into families of wealth and influence, and in all respects
the work of the institution has been of the most satisfactory character.
During its entire existence it has been supported by voluntary contribu-
tions, no fund or person being pledged to sustain it.
The Illinois St. Andrews Society was organized January 26th, 1846,
and, perhaps, should be placed in this chapter. In February, 1853, the
society was incorporated by the legislature of Illinois, and has become a
powerful and useful institution. Its object is to aid destitute Scotch people,
and it performs this holy duty in a most faithful manner. In its burial
lot at Rose Hill cemetery, sleep nearly a hundred people for whom the
society has performed the last sad rites. The natives of " bonny Scotland '*
are a sterling class of our population, and being generous withal, St.
Andrews is a legitimate outcome of noble Scotch nature. It not only
408
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
dispenses a much needed charity, and gives to the Scotchman, who may
be unfortunate, a feeling of independence, but is a real, substantial monu-
ment to the nobler impulses of the human heart.
The following named gentlemen were the presidents of the society at
the dates set opposite their names :
George Steel 1846
Alexander Brand 1847
James Michie 1848
Alexander Brand 1 849
George Steel 1850
Alexander Brand i&51
Alexander Brand 1852
George Anderson 1853
John McGlashan 1854
John H. Kedzie 1855
John Alston 1856
John Alston 1857
Robert Hervey 185'
John R. Valentine 1860
Dugald Stewart 1861
Robert Hervey 1862
Daniel Cameron 1863
William James 1864
Robert Hervey 1865
William Stewart 1866
Hugh Macalister 1867
Dr. John Macalister ib6S
Robert Hervey 1869
Gen. John McArthur 1870
Gen. John McArthur 1871
Gen. John McArthur 1872
Robert Clark 1873
Robert Hervey 1874
Robert Hervey 1875
Godfrey McDonald 1876
Andrew Harvie 1859 Godfrey McDonald 1877
Daniel R. Cameron 1878
Daniel R. Cameron. 1879
Alexander Kirk land .1880
Alexander Kirklar.d. . . ..iSSi
Of these George Steel, Alexander Brand, James Michie, John
McGlashan, Andrew Harvie, Daniel Cameron, Hugh Macalister, and
Dr. John Macalister are dead.
The Illinois Charitable Eye and Ear Infirmary is a State institution,
located at the corner of Adams and Peoria streets. In the fourth biennial
report of the State Board of Charities, we find the following facts con-
cerning its origin and development:
"In May, 1858, four medical gentlemen met several wealthy and
benevolent citizens of Chicago, who together organized a board of twelve
trustees, with two consulting and two attending surgeons, under a consti-
tution and by-laws. The general financial depression of the country and
the excitement during the earlier period of the late war, rendered it very
difficult to obtain funds for the purchase of real estate and for the erection
of a suitable building. Hence it was deemed expedient to conduct the
institution at first as a dispensary. Consequently, a single room, in a small
wooden building, at the northeast corner of Michigan and North Clark
streets, was opened for the treatment of the poor. During the first year,
about one hundred and fifteen patients were under treatment. At the
end of nearly four years, the dispensary was removed to a room, 28
North Clark street, where it remained till July, 1864."
At this time the President of the Board of Trustees donated to the use
of the Infirmary, for ten years, a lot of- land on East Pearson street, and
a commodious wooden building was purchased for two thousand dollars,
and removed thereon. The first patient applying for treatment was com-
pelled to sleep on a blanket spread upon the floor, as at the time of the
application the rooms had not been furnished. Within two days, however,
better provision was made, and as the entrance of patients demanded it,
rooms were furnished. It was not many months before the accommoda.
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS, 409
tions were inadequate for the necessities of the work. Many from the
army were applying for treatment, and the institution was overrun. To
meet the needs of the hour a large attic was finished and partitioned into
rooms. After awhjle the bu Iding was raised, and a brick basement
placed under it. The Governors of Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota,
each had donations of five hundred dollars, contributed for the purpose
of supporting patients from these States in the Infirmary, and the United
States Sanitary Commission, the Northwestern Sanitary and Christian
Commissions also contributed for the free treatment of soldiers.
In 1869 a large building was constructed in the rear of the lot, and
thus additional accommodations were afforded. Through the liberality
of the benevolent the institution was enabled to support a large number
of patients, and not only to pay off an indebtedness of six thousand
dollars, but to accumulate a fund of seven thousand dollars.
The legislature of Illinois voted to appropriate five thousand dollars
a year from 1867 to 1871 for the support of patients, and in the last named
year it became a State charity. The buildings being destroyed by the great
fire of this year, the legislature appropriated a sufficient sum to open
temporary quarters.
The General Assembly appropriated, from time to time, funds to
enable the trustees to complete and furnish a large brick structure on the
corner of West Adams and Peoria streets. The land, one hundred and
forty-five by one hundred and twenty-five feet, with the building, includ-
ing the operating-room, reception, and two large treatment-rooms for
out-patients, cost seventy-nine thousand three hundred dollars.
The building easily accommodates one hundred patients, and is
probably inferior to no similar institution in the world. It has provided
to the present time treatment for more than eighteen thousand poor
patients.
Mercy Hospital was originally opened under the name of the Illinois
General Hospital of the Lakes, under a charter granted by the legisla-
ture. Dr. N. S. Davis, in the Summer of 1850, gave a series of lectures
for the purpose of raising funds for the establishment of the institution.
With the money thus raised, together with the contributions of individuals,
twelve beds were placed in the Lake House, situated on the northeast
corner of Rush and South Water streets, and the hospital was opened
for patients. Drs. Davis and Brainard were the physicians in charge.
In 1851 the management of the institution was assumed by the
Sisters of Mercy, who have changed its name to the one it now bears.
The building now used for the hospital is a large and beautiful structure
at the corner of Calumet avenue and Twenty-sixth street, capable of
accommodating five hundred patients.
Cook County Hospital is located on Harrison and Wood streets, and
is one of the finest and best managed institutions of the kind in the country.
The present elegant buildings were finished and occupied in 1877. Previous
to the completion of the new building the hospital was located on Arnold
410 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
and Eighteenth streets. The original building erected upon this latter
site was a result of the cholera epidemic in 1854-5. It becoming necessary
to meet immediate necessities, a cheap frame building was erected by
the city authorities. There was no intention of making it a permanent
institution. Some of the prominent physicians agitated the question of
erecting buildings for constant hospital purposes. After the cholera
epidemic had subsided, the building was not used for some two years, the
city declining to care for any cases of destitute sickness, except of con-
tagious diseases, but compelling the county to do it.
In 1858, however, six physicians leased the building and converted
it into a public hospital, securing a contract from the county for the care
of the destitute sick. In 1863 — Chicago having become a military post,,
which it continued to be during the balance of the war of the rebellion —
the government took charge of the hospital, and Drs. Ross and Amer-
man had charge of the county's sick, under the directions of the surgeon
of the post. The institution was in the meantime changed into a Govern-
ment Eye and Ear Infirmary, and at the close of the war was known as
the DeMarr Eye and Ear Infirmary.
Immediately upon the close of the war efforts were made to re-estab-
lish the hospital. In 1866 these efforts were crowned with success, and
Cook County Hospital was established.
The Washingtonian Home, a stately building at the junction of
Madison street and Ogden avenue, was established in 1867. Its object
is to aid those who have become the victims of intemperance to reform,,
and it is eminently successful. Its beginning was naturally of small
dimensions, but it now occupies commodious quarters.
The following charitable institutions were organized at the dates
named :
St. Joseph's Orphan Asylum, 1849; House of the Good Shepherd,
1859; Home for the Friendless, 1859; Nursery and Half Orphan Asylum,,
1860; .St. Luke's -Hospital, 1863; Old People's Home, 1865; Erring
Woman's Refuge, 1865; Alexian Brothers' Hospital, 1860; Central Dis-
pensary, 1867; St. Joseph's Hospital, 1869; Uhlich Evangelical Lutheran
Association, 1869; Woman's Hospital Medical College, 1870; Woman's
Hospital State of Illinois, 1871; Cook County Department of Public
Charities, 1872; Orphan Girl's Home, 1874.
The Chicago Hospital for Women and Children, corner of Paulina
and West Adams streets, was opened May 8th, 1865, on the corner of
Rush and Indiana streets, with a capacity of fourteen beds. Its objects
were: First, to afford a home for women and children among the
respectable poor in neeJ of medical and surgical treatment. Second, to
sustain a free dispensary for the benefit of the same class. Third, as
incidental to the above to train women to become competent nurses.
Among its earliest friends were Reverend Dr. Ryder, who called the
first meeting, and ever after retained a warm interest in the institution; Mrs.
M. 13. Dyas, who was always a sincere and faithful worker; F. B. Gardner,.
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 411
who collected and donated the first one thousand dollars; and also Dr. W.
G. Dyas, Mrs. E. J. Colby, Mrs. Geo. Hall, and until their removal from
the city, Dr. S. C. Blake and Reverend Dr. Tiffany. Gilbert Hubbard
has been from an early day one of the most efficient and generous sup-
porters of the hospital.
The hospital, then located at 402 North State street, was burned in
the great fire of 1871. Though everything was lost except patients, it was
re-opened in two days, by the Relief and Aid Society, on West Adams
street, for the benefit of sufferers by the fire, but was soon moved into the
barracks for a few months, to secure greater accommodations. With
what was collected in the East, and what the Relief and Aid Society
gave after the fire, the present house and lot were purchased. The house
was refitted and a basement added. The lot is one hundred and thirty
by one hundred and fifty feet. Since its removal there during the Winter
of 1872-3, an average of twenty-five patients have been constantly cared
for in the hospital.
The medical staff as first organized included among others the follow-
ing, who still retain their positions:
Mary H. Thompson, M. D., Attending Physician and Surgeon.
Consulting Physicians and Surgeons: W. G. Dyas, F.R.S., M.D.; C. G,
Smith, M. D.; John Bartlett, M. D.; A. Fisher, M. D.; Thomas Bevan,
M. D.; E. Marguirat, M. D.
To this number have since been added: W. E. Clark, M. D. ; W. H.
Byford, A. M., M. D.; R. G. Bogue, M. D.; C. G. Paoli, M. D.; F. C.
Hotz, M. D. ; A. H. Foster, M. D., and Sarah H. Stevenson, M. D., who
also holds the place of Attending Physician.
Women medical students and graduates have always been the attend-
ants of the hospital, with the exception of six young men — students and
graduates of medicine — who were employed in the early years of the
institution, before the services of women students could be secured.
The hospital is now one of the permanent incorporated institutions
of the city, and is widely known as a public charity doing a large amount
of work for the money expended.
The officers of the present Board of Trustees are W. H. Byford,
A. M., M. D., President; Reverend Dr. Ryder, Vice President; John
Crerar, Secretary; Gilbert Hubbard, Treasurer.
The Board of Councilors, who manage the hospital and provide
funds for current expenses, have as their officers: Mrs. J. C. Hilton, Presi-
dent; Mrs. J. McGregor Adams, Vice President; Mrs. John Wilkinson,
Treasurer; Mrs. F. B. Williams, Secretary.
Patients applying for admission are chiefly those whose pride of
character leads them to shrink from entering the more public wards of the
County Hospital. They include sewing women, domestics, female em-
ployes in stores and manufactories, penniless widows and deserted wives.
Occasionally orphans and half-orphans are received. Less than one-tenth
of the number of patients admitted pay the small sum of five dollars per
412
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
week for board, while nine-tenths have been provided with board, medi-
cines and medical attendance free. Patients treated in the dispensary
received medicines free until about three years ago, since when only the
most urgent cases have been given medicines. This dispensary should
be sustained free of charge for the benefit of women preferring to be treated
by their own sex, and unable to pay the ordinary fees at the office of a lady
physician.
From its first inception nurses have been trained and sent out, and
it is gratifying to note a marked improvement in the class of persons
offering themselves for such work. Of late years young women with
health, ability and zeal, have received instruction with highly satisfactory
results. Four years ago the medical staff began to give an annual course
of lectures to nurses, which at regular periods have been continued to date.
The objects for which the hospital was opened have been carried out
as far as the means contributed would allow. Over eleven thousand
patients in all have been treated, the time of their residence in the hospital
varying from a few weeks to a year and a half.
413
CHAPTER XXX.
POEMS DEDICATED TO CHICAGO.
The fire of 1871 called forth amidst an avalanche of rhyme, some
beautiful verses from the pens of our finest writers, and our people will
always feel that they are so distinctly the property of Chicago, that they
should be preserved in any work of this character. The heart of the
poet is ever as gentle as the sunbeam, and a calamity like that which
visited our ill-fated city in the Autumn of 1871, inspires his sweetest and
loftiest thoughts. America's Quaker poet could never keep silent under
such distressing circumstances. The heart that for a long life had throbbed
with melting sympathy for the unfortunate in all lands, and the pen which
had crayoned in verse the loveliest pictures of liberty that eye ever beheld,
could not be mute in the glare of burning Chicago. He who had written
so much to touch the heart .and. cheer on the world to the accomplishment
of nobler deeds, wrote to cheer the hearts of our people when they were
hesitating between hope and despair. For h m and for the others who
spoke to us in verse, Chicago cherishes a feeling of admiration and rever-
ence.
CHICAGO.
BY JOHN G. WHITTIER.
Men said at vespers: All is well!
In one wild night the city fell;
Fell shrines of prayer and marts of gain
Before the fiery hurricane.
On threscore spires had sunset shone,
Where ghastly sunrise looked on none;
Men clasped each other's hands, and said:
^ The City of the West is dead !
Brave hearts who fought, in slow retreat,
The fiends of fire from street to street,
Turned, powerless, to the blinding glare,
The dumb defiance of despair.
A sudden impulse thrilled each wire
That signaled round that sea of fire ; —
Swift words of cheer, warm heart-throbs came;
In tears of pity died the flame!
From East, from West, from South and North,
The messages of hope shot forth,
4H CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
And underneath the severing wave,
The world, full-handed, reached to save.
Fair seemed the old; but fairer still
• The new the dreary void shall fill,
| With dearer homes than those o'erthrown,
For love shall lay each corner-stone.
Rise, stricken city! — from thee throw
The ashen sackcloth of thy woe ;
And build, as Thebes to Amphion's strain,
To songs of cheer thy walls. again!
How shrivelled in thy hot distress
The primal sin of selfishness l\
How instant rose, to take thy part,
The angel in the human heart!
Ah! not in vain the flames that tossed
Above thy dreadful holocaust;
The Christ again has preached through thee
The Gospel of humanity !
Then lift once more thy towers on high,
And fret with spires the western sky,
To tell that God is yet with us,
And love is still miraculous!
THE SMITTEN GITY/
BY GEORGE ALFRED TOWNSEND.
I heard a parson of the school of Baalam
Lift up the lesson of the flaming town,
And, like a peddler in the will of Heaven,
Show how its sins invoked the Sovereign frown.
Thus the dead lion ever is insulted
By as'ses' colts, whose pity is a blow,
And fallen empires find their last misfortune
In shallow platitudes from fool and foe.
Bright, Christian capital of lakes and prairie,
Heaven had no interest in thy scourge and scath ;
Thou wert the newest shrine of our religion,
The youngest witness of our hope and faith. — * .
Not in thy embers do we rake for folly, *
But like a martyr's ashes gather thee,
With chastened pride and tender melancholy, —
The miracle thou wast, and yet will be!
Not merely in the homages of churches,
Or bells of praise tolled o'er the inland seas, —
•Thou glorified our God and human nature
With meeter works and grander melodies.
Of cheerful toil and willing enterprises,
Of hearty faith in freedom and in man;
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 4J5
The hoar old capitals looked on in wonder
To see the swift strong race this stripling ran.
How like the sun he rose above the marshes,
And built the world beneath his airy feet,
And changed the course of immemorial rivers,
And tapped the lakes for water cool and sweet.
How skillfully the golden grain transmuted
To birds of sail and meteors of spark,
And, like another Noah, bade creation
March in the teeming mazes of his ark.
Yet in his power, most frank and democratic,
He roused no envious witness of his joy,
And in the stature of the Prince and hero,
We saw the laughing 'dimples of a boy.
Still wise and apt among the oldest merchants,
His young example steered the wary mart,
And amplest credit poured its gold around him,
And trade imperial gave scope for art.
His architectures passed all heathen splendor,
The immigrating Goth drew wandering near;
To see his shafts and arches tall and slender
Branch o'er the new homes of this pioneer.
The Greek and Rojman there might see rebuilded
In vastness equal and in style as pure,
The"rhercrran.ts' markets like a palace gilded,
With marble walls and deep entablature.
His two score bridges swinging on their pivots,
The long and laden line of vessels sped,
While he, impatient, marched beneath the sluice,
His hosts, like Cyrus, in the river's bed.
Then, when all weak predictions proved but scandal, '
And the wild marshes grew a sovereign's home,
A dozing cow o'erset an urchin's candle, —
Once more a fool fired the Ephesian dome.
The artless winds that blow o'er plains of cattle,
And cooled the corn through all the Summer days,
Plunged like wild steeds in pastime or in battle,
Straight in the blinding brightness of the blaze.
And down fell bridge, and parapet, and lintel,
The blazing barques went drifting, one by one ;
The mighty city wrapped its head in splendor,
And sank into the waters like a sun !
V
Oh ! thou, my master, champion of the people.
TRIBUNE august, who o'er kept righteous court,
Long after fire had toppled church and steeple,
Thou stood'st amidst the ruins like a fort.
High and serene thy cornices extended,
Though scorched by smoke and of the flame the prey,
Above the vault where, grim and calm, and splendid,
The sleeping lions of thy presses lay.
416 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
Till looking round on the wondrous pity,
Thyself alone erect, intact, upreared,
Disdaining to outlive the glorious city,
With innate heat transfigured, disappeared.
Yet, from the grave Chicago's wondrous spirit
Comes forth all brightness, o'er the darkened town,
To say again: "Lo! I am with you brethren;
With all thy thorns, I wear my civic crown.
"To die is sweet embalmed in your compassion;
Your oil and wine make life in every rent.
Oh ! let me lean a little while upon you,
And walk to strength in your encouragement."
CHICAGO.
BY BRET HARTE.
Blackened and pleading, helpless, panting, prone,
On the charred fragments of her shattered throne,
Lies she who stood but yesterday alone.
Queen of the West; by some enchanter taught,
To lift the glory of Aladdin's court,
Then lose the spell that all that wonder wrought.
Like her own prairies by some chance seed sown,
Like her own prairies in one brief day grown,
Like her own prairies in one fierce night mown.
She lifts her voice and in her pleading calls,
We hear the cry of Macedon to Paul,
The cry for help that makes her kin to all.
But happy with wan fingers mav she feel
The silver cup hid in the proffered meal,
The gifts her kinship and our loves reveal.
OUT OF THE ASHES.
BY HOWARD GLYNDON.
Oh! fallen with the falling leaves,
And level with the dust as they !
Thy beauty, City of the lake,
Is but a thing of yesterday.
Thou wondrous blossom of the West !
We were so passing proud of thee :
"See," said we to the elder world,
"How cities grow when men are free."
Thy senior sisters, looking on
With dazed, half unbelieving eyes
Saw thee, like Hercules of old,
Swift into ripe estate arise.
And seeing thee so fair, how. high
The hearts of all thy children were!
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 417
We would not blame them if to-day
They bowed their faces in despair;
Or. newly risen from troubled sleep,
Stared, with uncomprehending eyes,
On homesteads smoldering, black and bare,
Beneath the mild October skies;
Where, here and there, but yesterday
Towered up such sumptuous witnesses
Of their devoted hearts and hands —
God help them in this sore distress !
And saying this, the Nation takes
These homeless children of the West
Into her motherly embrace,
And hides the homeless in her breast.
Not homeless while our homes have room !
Not homeless — all our doors are wide !
The welcome that we send to-day
Is tinctured with exulting pride.
For who has heard one craven cry,
Though thousands wander lorn and pale?
Oh ! strong young city, sorest tried,
There's bravery even in thy wail.
To where thou sitt'st we bring the world,
And show thy ruins, saying, "See !
She is not broken, only bent;
For hearts are strong when men are free."
PARIS AND CHICAGO.
BY WM. CULLEN BRYANT.
O bird with a crimson wing
And a brand in thy glowing beak,
Why did'st thou nutter o'er seas to bring
A woe that we dare not speak ?
By the light of a flaming sword,
Did the beautiful Queen of the East
Behold the awful avenging word,
And drink the blood of the feast.
Her fires went out on the hearth,
And. the glory of Paris has fled;
Could her maddening wiles and unseemly mirth,
Unstop the ears of the dead !
Did out of her ashes arise
This bird with a flaming crest,
That over the ocean unhindered flies,
With a scourge for the Queen of the West?
See homes at its bidding fall !
At its fiery fierce attack !
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
While the fiends of the air hold carnival
In the light of its lurid track.
The joys that were held so dear,
On the glow of its breath expire;
While treasures and palaces disappear,
Consumed by its vengeful ire.
Fly hence on thy wing of flame,
O bird ! for thy work is done;
And the queens of a different clime and name
In their ruin and grief are one.
4'9
CHAPTER XXXI.
SPORTING REMINISCENCES.
The following letter to the CHICAGO TRIBUNE by Charles Cleaver,
an old resident, possesses so much interest that we give it place here:
"I must acknowledge that, like most Englishmen, in my youthful
days I was fond of all kinds of field-sporting, yet I never let pleasure
interfere with business, as many young men do now-a-days, but all my
hunting and fishing was done when I had nothing else to do. Both fish-
ing and shooting, however, were very different things in those early days
from what they are now, as the game was close at hand. Having my
attention called to it by an article recently published, I will jot down a few
memories of the past. When we came over from London, in 1833, we
not only brought guns and rifles, but some good bred dogs. We had
a foxhound, greyhound, setter, pointer and spaniel. Such dogs were then
very scarce in America; and they, of course, on our arrival here, at the
very outskirts of civilization,. soon brought us more or less in connection
with others who were fond of such sports. On our arrival in New York,
March I3th, 1833, it being too early for the canal-opening, we had to wait
until the twenty-second of April, during which time we made several
excursions to Brooklyn and Hoboken with dogs and guns in search
of game, but without success, except the shooting of a few v/oodcock
in New Jersey. Game of any kind seemed to be very scarce, although
the country was then occupied by farmers and market gardeners. When
we arrived in Buffalo, where we stayed some three or four months, from
May to August, we had more sport. Pigeons were plenty in the woods,
and fishing was really splendid. Many a time did my&lf and friend walk
three miles to the rapids at Black Rock, and return before breakfast with
thirty or forty pounds of fish hanging on a pole between us, some of them
weighing five or six pounds each; and, as we pulled them out of the water,
their scales shining and shimmering in the Summer sun, the very sight
of them would have made an epicure's mouth water.
When we arrived in Chicago, in October, we soon began to take
part in the sport then in vogue in the village. The foxhound soon proved
one of the best wolf dogs in Chicago. The captain of the garrison, whom
we met at White Pigeon Prairie, while acknowledging the merits of our
noble hound, yet declared he had a dog in Chicago that would dive
deeper, come up drier, and catch more wolves than any dog in America;
and he would like to see the man that disputed it. I rather think he had
420 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
been a little too near the corner of the bar-room where the bottles were
kept, for his own good, when he made that assertion. But, on our arrival
in Chicago, we found him a first-rate fellow, and his dog all he had
claimed for him. He was a mixture of lurcher and greyhound, of very
powerful build, and, they said, had killed one hundred and fifty wolves
in his day.
The way we broke our foxhound was rather unique. We lived, that
first Winter on the North Side, about the corner of Kinzie and Rush
streets. It was all heavily timbered down to the river-bank, between the
North Branch and the lake, for some miles out. A neighbor having lost
a calf, the wolves came prowling round, making night hideous with their
quarreling and howling over its carcass; so we took possession of it,
dragged it farther into the woods, and set two or three spring-traps around
it, covering them from sight with the scattered leaves. The first night
one trap was sprung, but with no wolf in it. The second we were more
successful, being rewarded in the morning by seeing a large wolf caught
by his hind leg, which he had nearly cut to the bone in his efforts to
escape; but we were too elated at our success to trouble ourselves about
that. We started back to the house, got a large bag, and a rope, in the
middle of which we put a slip-noose; and one getting at each end of
the rope, soon succeeded it getting it over his head and around his neck,
which we began to squeeze rather too tight for comfort, in spite of his
snapping jaws, which might have been heard a block off. By each one
getting close to him, we easily lifted him into the sack, and carried him
home. After breakfast we crossed the river in a canoe, for the prairie
about the corner of Wabash avenue and Randolph street, accompanied
by two dogs, the foxhound and greyhound. We then turned the wolf
out, giving him a hundred yards start before we let the dogs after him.
He made fast time for the woods on the South Branch. The greyhound,
with his superior speed, soon caught him, and biting his haunch, brought
him to bay, when the foxhound, coming up, took hold of him by the neck,
and never gave up the fight until she laid him dead at our feet. The grey-
hound, getting his Jaw locked with the wolf's, wanted no more of it, and
stood calmly by wmle the other killed him.
This was my first affair with wolves. They were then very numer-
ous. In crossing from Clark street to Cly bourn bridge, through the
woods, one time, I saw five of them devouring the remains of a cow.
They looked so savage that, having no gun with me, I thought discretion
the better part of valor, and made considerable of a detour to avoid them,
though I never heard of them attacking any person. I often came across
three or four on the road between Elston's and Lake street bridge, sitting
in the road, baying at the moon.
The officers of the garrison, having nothing much to do, used to kill
large numbers of them. They met every Wednesday, with others, on
horseback, and eight or ten dogs with them, in front of the old Sauganash,
on Market street, then kept by Mark Beaubien, who still may be seen at
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 421
times, playing the same old fiddle with which he used to electrify and
amuse his patrons in the bar-room, forty-six or seven years since. Here
they organized for the day's hunt, and often killed five or six wolves
before night.
Once, when I was coming down in the stage from Milwaukee, the
snow being very deep, and the sleighing excellent, as it had been for some
weeks — so much so that Frink & Walker's horses had grown fat and frisky,
and consequently were in good running order — there happened to be no
one in the sleigh but myself, and the driver was hardly able to control his
four spirited horses. When about six miles from town, we saw a large
wolf making his tedious way through the snow, evidently pretty well
tired out. He came into the track a short distance ahead of us and laid
down. I suggested to the driver that we might have a first-rate wolf-
hunt, as I knew, after his late experience, he would keep to the smooth
track as long as he could, and when he turned out, I was to jump off and
kill him with an ax-handle, a dozen of which happened to be in the sleigh.
The horses soon increased their speed, seeming to enjoy it as much as
ourselves, and got into a full gallop after the wolf, who ran them a splendid
race for a couple of miles, when he turned out, and I, in the excitement
of the chase forgetting the great speed at which we were going, accord-
ing to the programme, jumped from the sleigh, and rolled over and over
in two feet of snow. When I recovered myself, the stage was half a mile
ahead and the wolf fifty feet behind me, lay panting on the snow. When
I began to approach him he showed such a splendid row of teeth in his
jaws, and snapped them in such a significant manner, that I thought
I might as well leave him, as evening was coming on, and I had to walk
two or three miles to the nearest house. The horses had got past all con-
trol, and never stopped until they got to Powell's Tavern, their usual
watering-place,, about two and one-half miles from the village. The
driver, however, put them on the back track to meet me, expecting, as
he said, to find me skinning the wolf; but in that he was mistaken.
I remember one other instance of a wolf-hunt in which I was
engaged. It was usual, in those early times, to cut oyr own hay on the
prairie ; and having a couple of men mowing near Haixlscrable, as it was
then called, about Twenty-second street and Blue Island avenue, I drove
out to get a load ; and, when jogging along homeward, about the corner
of Halsted and Twelfth streets, I saw a large wolf digging away at a great
rate after a chipmunk, or something of the kind. I stopped and shouted
at him several times; but he was so intent upon what he was about — no
doubt being hungry for his dinner — that he took no notice of me. 'Oh!
oh! my fine fellow! so you won't leave, won't you? I will just see what
I can do to make you.' So, slipping off my load, I took one of the horses
from the wagon, stripped her of the harness except the bridle, jumped on
her back, and away I went pell-mell across the prairie after Mr. Wolf.
It d'.d not take long for him to move when he saw what I was after, and
I gave him most likely the hardest run he ever had in his life for a mile
422 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
or more; and, had it not been for a neighboring swamp, in which he took
refuge, I should certainly have caught him, for I was armed with a pitch-
fork, which I carried in my right hand ready to plunge into him, and
was close upon his heels when my horse's sinking fetlock deep in the soft
earth warned me to desist, much against my will.
1 was going up to Milwaukee in one of the large steamers, and was
sitting reading in the cabin, when the captain rushed in, evidently very
much excited, snatched his glass from the table, and in answer to my
inquiry of what was the matter, said there was something in the lake
about two miles ahead, and they could not make out what it was. Of
course my book was dropped in a moment, and I hastened after the captain
to the bow of the boat, where I found most of the few passengers on
board anxiously trying to make out this strange object. Those used to
sailing can form some idea of the commotion caused on board a craft when
anything unusual is sighted. The captain, after examination by glass,
first said it was a horse, then a deer, and on getting nearer, declared it to
be a bear, and decided at once that he would catch him at all hazard, and
calling for volunteers, found no lack of men willing to undertake the
task. So the small boat was lowered, with four stalwart sailors at the oars,
the mate at the helm, and a man at the bow with a rope, in which he
made a slip-noose. They started for poor Bruin, who, when he found
they were after him, made most excellent time for the middle of the lake,
and for a mile or two led them a splendid race before they came up with
him. After two or three attempts the man at the bow threw the fatal
noose over his head. Directly the bear found he was caught, he turned
and made for the boat, evidently intending to carry the war into the
enemy's camp; but they were too quick for him, not liking the idea
of having him for a passenger. So they turned and rowed for the
steamer with all their might. This brought poor Bruin's nose under
the water, and by the time they reached the steamboat, which had been
following pretty close in the wake of the pursuers, he was almost drowned.
The rope was thrown to us on deck, onto which we soon hauled him,
and then held a council of war as to what should be done with him. It
was at first suggested that he should be chained up, and a large chain was
brought and put round his neck. Then some ladies came to look at him,
and exclaimed, 1O, the horrid great creature! do kill him!' Some person
standing by put his hand on the animal's head, and said he was fast
recovering, and if he was not killed, would soon be master of the boat.
On which a bevy of female and some male voices cried out to the captain
to have him killed at. once. On a butcher offering to do the job, the
captain consented, and the bear was doomed to have his throat cut and
die as ignominious a death as any common porker. He was a noble fel-
low, black and tan, seven or eight feet in length, and when he was skinned,
showing such claws and muscles that the volunteers rejoiced that he did
not make good his entry into the boat, for he would certainly have driven
them into the water if they had escaped his claws and teeth. On my
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 423
return by land two days after, I made several inquiries, and was told he
was driven into the lake the morning before; but I always doubted the
truth of his swimming in the water all night and half the next day; so
am inclined to the opinion that he was driven in that same morning, and
being watched from the shore, put well out into the lake for safety. Cer-
tain it is that when first seen by us he was swimming from shore, and was
full five miles out.
It is a fact that I speared an extraordinarily large muskallonge
about four or five miles up the North Branch of the river. 'The North
Branch of the river!' I think I hear some one exclaim; 'that horrid cess-
pool of filth and turbid water! A nice place to fish!' But you must
remember it was not always so. In those early times it was a clear,
sparkling stream, with quite a strong current, especially near the dam,
five miles from the city, over which the water rippled and ran, making
a soft, soothing, murmuring sound, heard on that still Winter's night for
a considerable time before we reached it. With a lantern at the head
of the canoe, in which we burnt hickory bark stripped from the trees on
the bank, there was no difficulty in seeing the fish at the bottom of the
river, even in six feet of water. I always supposed that fish was the largest
ever taken in these waters, and still claim it to be so. The one I caught
measured five and a half feet in length; and Dr. John Temple, who then
lived on Lake street, between Wells and Franklin streets, being down at
the river, catching sight of it on the opposite side, took the trouble to get
a canoe and cross the river -to see it, remarking that it was the largest he
had ever seen, and many times after said the same. When I first saw it,
it had two mates of about the same size, all swimming in a row. I thrust
the spear into the middle of its body, but it would not hold, and slipped
off. I immediately dropped down the river, exclaiming to the friend who
was paddling, 'O, such an immense fish! drop down stream quick; we
must not lose it.' After replenishing the fire at the head of the boat we again
ascended the river, and soon heard the poor creature blowing like a por-
poise. It was swimming down stream, with its head well out of the
water, into which I again threw the spear, and after a great struggle,
succeeded in dragging it into the canoe; and even then it floundered so
that we were nearly upset, and it took several blows of the hatchet upon
its head before I could quiet it.
Several times in the Spring of 1834 I fished on the lake with the
garrison officers, who used to furnish men to do the work, and a good
boat, and we often made famous hauls; but it was with Mr. Elston's seine
we fished, and not the garrison's. He brought two of them from England,
and I was then living with him."
424
CHAPTER XXXII.
THE STEAM TOWING BUSINESS.
The steam tug business of Chicago is about twenty-eight years old,
and it is deserving of favorable mention in the history of the city. But little
has been said of it in print except to bring it into disrepute. Conflicting
interests cause the people and the newspapers to bear, perhaps, unjustly
hard upon the business. The tugs make an annoying noise, belch forth
an ocean of smoke and cause interruption to bridge travel. These things
irritate the citizens, and the result is much bad feeling, and the enactment
of strict laws and city ordinances. These in turn irritate the tugmen, and
they complain not only of burdensome laws, but what they term slow
and stubborn bridge tenders, which together with wind, current and the
railroad bridges and the powerful monopoly that runs them, are, they allege,
a serious impediment to the tug interests.
About the first regular vessel towing ever done at Chicago was in
the year 1853, and the first tug was the Indiana, a side-wheel boat that
came from some Eastern port. The Black Swan, built at the North Pier,
was the next boat to attempt the business, but being a stern paddle, or
wooden wheel boat, with little power, she was a failure. Then came the
Archimedes, which was also built here. She was a side-wheeler, and
for the times, was of some use. These boats were a combination of
weakness and enterprise, entirely lacking the present quality of dura-
bility of our tugs, but they proved that tugs here could give that assistance
and dispatch so much needed by vessels, and for which their owners were
willing to pay, thus establishing the fact that tugs properly managed
would prove remunerative. In 1853 the first real harbor tug, with the
iron submerged or screw wheel, came here from Buffalo, New York. In
the Spring of 1854 two more of those side-wheelers made their appear-
ance, the Moore and Kossuth; but their work was mainly canal boat
towing. In that year, also, two more regular screw wheel tugs were
placed upon our waters, the Fredrick Follet, from across the lake, and
the then largest one, the Eclipse. At this time the towing took the form
of a regular business, but it had many difficulties to overcome, which are
now unknown and almost forgotten; such as being compelled to have all
the bridges open for them whether they had vessels in tow or not; burn-
ing the slow-lighting hard coal; bending the blades of their wheels, which
were wrought iron in those days; unshipping rudders and knocking
down the then stationary smokestacks; inability to get steam in some cases,
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 425
and to keep it down in others. The captain of a tug in those days re-
mained out on deck to make bargains and give orders to the crew.
Each tug carried a wheelsman, who did all the handling of the tug and
tow, subject to the captain's orders. Now the captain does his own steering.
The headquarters of the business was first near State street bridge,
or where that bridge now stands; but they were removed to Clark street
bridge, where they remained until 1870, at which time they were estab-
lished at the lumber market, where they still remain.
The charges for vessel towing in the early days, were very uneven,
fluctuating in one day from apparent extortion to fifty per cent, below
absolute starvation prices, the main rule being, supply and demand. It
might one day cost a vessel one hundred dollars for a tow that would be
duplicated the next for two or three dollars. In 1855 the number of men
directly employed in running the tug fleet was about twenty-five, and in
iSSo the number must have been over three hundred and twenty-five, and
a tug does not carry as many men now as in 1855, either.
The following are the names of the fifty-eight tugs now in Chicago:
Constitution, Union, Monitor, Geo. B. McClellan, American Eagle, Gen.
Humphreys, R. Prindiville, J. A. Crawford, Crawford, O. B. Green, M.
Green, Alert, A. Mosher, A. B. Ward, J. G. Campbell, J. H. Hackley,
T. Brown, A. Miller, M. Shields, A. Van Schaick, Geo. B. Carpenter,
G. W. Gardner, F. Theilikie, F. R. Crane, A. S. Allen, R. Tarrant, F.
S. Butler, L. B.Johnson, Levi Johnson, E. P. Ferry, C. W. Parker, J. L.
Higgle, W. Brown, J. C. Iirgram, A. Ransom, A. Eustaphieve, D. L.
Babcock, E. Anthony, L. Dole, M. McLane, A. L. Smith, W. L. Ewing,
Protection, Satisfaction, Rebel, Black Ball No. 2, Triad, Little Giant No. 2,
Red Jacket, Diamond, Albatross, Charmer, Success, Brothers, Two
Brothers, Belle Chase, W. H. Wood, C. Nelson.
Following are the names of tugs that have been here, but are not
here now: Black Swan, Indiana, Archimedes, H. Franklin, Seneca, F.
Follet, Kossuth, H. Moore, Eclipse, Gtmnison, Foster, Gushing, Mosher,
America, H. Morton, Mulford, W. McQueen, T. Jones, B. F. Davison,
Levi, Mars, Ajax, Lark, Osgood, Dime, Sturges, Rumsey, S. G. Chase,
Salvor, Tiger, Cleveland, Oswego, Montauk, Brooklyn, Continental, Ada
Allen, Oriole, Evans, Hewett, Hunter, Messenger, M. P. Harrison, G.
W. Wood, P. Brearly, B. Drake, A. Burton, E. Van Dalson, M. Ryerson,
Home, Sheppard,J. Gregory, Goldsmith Maid, S. V. R. Watson, Stranger,
A. M. Ball, H. Warner, I. M. Stephens, Day Spring, Magnolia, Griffin,
L. Everett, Nagle, Night Hawk, Kitty Smoke, W. Richards, Edwards,
Mentor, L. B. Coates, Cyclone, Ida Lee, Coleman, M. Boole, R. Ander-
son, E. P. Dorr, E. C. Blish, J. Sutton, Col. Stephens, J. P. Haytlen, G.
Grant, Little Giant No. i, L. Clifford, Sport, F. Stafford and Morgan.
Below are inserted the names of the places from which the tugs have
come so far as it has been possible to ascertain. Buffalo, New York, has
furnished over one-half of the tugs that have been here, and among them
the following: H. Franklin, Dime, F. Stafford, Anderson, Ball, Red
426 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
Jacket, Home, Magnolia, Dorr, Nelson, Hayden, Van Dalson, Carpenter,
Rebel, Black Ball, Satisfaction, W. Brown, Higgie, Theilikie, Gardner,
Brothers, Evans, Harrison, Sheppard, Watson, Nagle, Lee, J. Sutton,
Clifford, Messenger, Coates and Hayden.
From Cleveland, Ohio, came, among others, those here named: Mars,
Ajax, Montauk, Triad, Edwards and Cleveland.
Philadelphia furnished the Levi, America, Brearly, Gushing and
Mosher.
The Foster, Gunnison, Ward, Coleman and Hunter came from
Troy, New York.
It will also be interesting to know where some of the tugs, whose
names are familiar, went during the late civil war. The government
took six of them, paying the owners for them and sending them South
by way of the Illinois and Michigan Canal. They were the Dime, Mul-
ford, Little Giant, Cleveland, Sturges and Rumsey.
The following also went South by way of the canal : Oriole, Coates,.
Ada Allen, Levi, Gunnison, Continental, Brooklyn, Watson, Magnolia,
Nagle, I. M. Stephens, Goldsmith Maid, Montauk and Mosher. These
went South on private business, and went to New Orleans, Galveston>
Memphis, St. Louis and other points on the rivers and bays.
The following tugs were built at Chicago: Archimedes and Black
Swan, by Wm. Granger; H. Warner, by Walker & Ozier; McClellan and
Sturges, by Prindiville & Sturges; Rumsey, Union, Monitor, Constitution^
by Walker & Ozier; Davison, by Lurkins & Greenleaf; G. W. Wood, by
Crawford & Bowman ; J. A. Crawford and Little Giant No. 2, by Mosher &
Dunham; A. Mosher and R. Prindiville, by Prindiville, Harmon & Green;.
O. B. Green, by O. B. Green; Butler, by E. Van Dalson and others; Oriole^
by Harmon & Brown; L. B. Johnson, by A. Green and others; Tarrant, by
Burton, Rowell & Sanborn ; Smith, by Geo. McLane ; McLane and E wing,
by Taylor and others; M. Green, by M. Green; Miller, by Miller Brothers;.
Shields, by Leavort & Shields; Burton, by A. Burton; Everett, by Fox
& Howard; T. Brown, by Harmon & Brown; Van Schaick, by Vessel
Owners' Towing Company; Parker, Ferry, Protection, Alert, by O. B.
Green; Albatross, by fishermen; Charmer, by Dahlke Brothers.
As nearly as the dates can be fixed, the following will give the year
of the appearance of the tugs named: In 1853, the Indiana, Black Swan,
Archimedes, H. Franklin. In 1854, the Seneca, Follet, Eclipse, Moore,
Kossuth. In 1855, the Ward and Chase. In 1856, the Foster, Gunnisom
Morton, McQueen. In 1857, the Warner, Gushing, America, Levi,.
Mosher, Mulford, Dime. In 1858, the T. Jones, Salvor, Blish, Col.
Stephens. In 1859, the Sturges, Rumsey, McClellan, Grant. In 1860,
the Constitution, Union, Morgan. In 1861, the Davison and Monitor.
In 1862, the Mars, Ajax, Continental, Brooklyn, Nelson, G. W. Wood,
W. H. Wood, Little Giant. In 1863, the Stranger, Cleveland, Success,
Little Giant No. 2, J. A. Crawford, Van Dalson, Stafford, Harrison, Wat-
son, A. Mosher, Babcock, Dole, Prindiville. In 1864, the Montauk and
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 427
Sheppard. In 1865, the Sutton, O. B. Green, Tiger, Red Jacket, Belle
Chase, I. M. Stephens, Day Spring. In 1866, the Magnolia, Brothers,
Butler, Cyclone. In 1867, the Lark, Osgood, Evans, Ada Allen, Eusta-
phieve, Mentor. In 1868, the Hewett, Oswego, Oriole, Hunter, Coleman,
Messenger, Drake, L. B. Johnson, Tarrant, Ewing, Smith, McLane. In
1869, the M. Green, Miller, Lee, Home. In 1870, the Brearly, Clifford,
Shields, Anderson, Ball, Dorr. In 1871, the Burton, Campbell, Ryerson,
Everett, Rebel, Black Ball, Satisfaction, W. Brown, Higgle, Coates, Boole.
In 1872, the T. Brown, Diamond, Hayden. In 1873, the Sport and Van
Schaick. In 1874, the Parker, Ferry, Protection, Nagle. In 1875, the Alert
and Griffin. In 1876, the Goldsmith Maid, Albatross, Night Hawk. In
1877, the Humphreys, Two Brothers, American Eagle. In 1878, the Levi
Johnson, Ingram, Ransom, Anthony, Hackley, Gregory, Gardner, Crane,
A. S. Allen, Charmer. In 1879, the Kitty Smoke, Triad, Edwards,
Richards, Thielikie. In iSSo, the Carpenter and Crawford.
There have been but two iron tugs here. The first, the Levi, came
from Philadelphia, and after towing here for some time, went South
through the canal. She was a fine tug and would compare favorably
with any now here, of her power. The second is the Eustaphieve, still >
here, and owned by C. H. and L. J. McCormick. She has always been
a good little tug. One steel hull tug has been here, the Sport. She was
built at Wyandotte, by F. Kirby, for E. B. Ward. The entire boiler and
hull, with the exception of the cabin, was made of steel, and the cost
of the boat was seventeen thousand five hundred dollars. She was fast,
powerful, handy and durable. Captain Joseph Gilston brought her here
and ran her until she was called home.
There appears to have been five side- wheel tugs, at one time and another.
The Indiana, before referred to, was an old craft that was unmanageable
in windy weather, and she was weak at all times. She went out of sight
in 1854, and no one appears to know what became of her. The Archi-
medes, also previously mentioned, was handy for one of her class. She
was first owned by a Frenchman. After running some time, he sold her
to Mr. Durfee, the dock builder, and she towed the first dredges and scows
owned by his firm, and did all their work until 1859, when the firm built
the McClellan, and threw away the old, worn out "Peggy" as the boys
used to call her. The Moore was another of this class, and was a good
sized boat, in fact too large for harbor work. She was not remarkable
for anything except, perhaps, being in her own and everybody else's way,
and finally sinking in the river near the mouth of the canal. The Seneca
was the best general side-wheeler that ever was here. She did a great
o o
deal of good towing, but her career was cut short by an explosion of her
boiler, which will be more particularly noticed further on. She was
of medium size, with considerable power, and like all the other tugs here
then, she had no beauty to boast of. Last on this list comes the Kossuth.
She had a hull like a barn, to catch the wind ; was too long to turn the
sharp curves in the river, and not being fitted out with two engines, it was
428 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
difficult for her to get through the river with a tow. But she remained
until driven out by the more convenient screw wheel tugs. The owners
then started across the lake, to Manistee, Michigan, with her, but were
caught in a northwest breeze, and in trying to run into Muskegon harbor
she went ashore on the south side of the entrance, and in a few hours was
a total loss. She was the last of the side-wheel branch of the business.
The running expenses of the tugs in the year 1854 were not twenty
thousand dollars for six tugs; in 1860 they were over two hundred and
thirty thousand dollars for twenty-five tugs; in 1870 they were over three
hundred and sixty thousand dollars for thirty-eight tugs; in 1880 they
were four hundred and fifty thousand dollars for fifty-eight tugs.
Among other burdens which the tug interest has to bear, are hospital
dues, license and inspection fees, personal property and water tax, and
a ten dollar license to the captain and engineer of each tug. The general
government collects all these except the water and personal tax, which are
collected by the city. These items alone foot up to about one hundred
dollars per tug, and are regarded as burdensome by the tugmen.
Prior to 1860, endless trouble was caused by the lack of a uniform
price for towing done here. There was nothing certain as to the price
of any particular tow, and as business was increasing some system of regu-
lar charges was urgently demanded. During the Winter of 1860-1 some
of the most interested met and appointed a committee to devise a uniform
list of prices, one to be made public, and thereby do away with the
troublesome custom of making a bargain for each tow, or the necessity
of exposing vessel owners to the mercy of the tug owners, or the tug
owners to that of the vessel owners. H. Green and Captain J. A. Crawford
were members of the committee to which was committed the work of
arranging a schedule of prices, which work was performed in a most
satisfactory manner. The list of prices was duly prepared, and remained
in force until 1865, when it was enlarged and improved by some few
alterations. Five years more then passed, and in 1870 it was again revised,
and as revised, it served its purpose for ten years. Another enlargement
was found necessary at that time to cover new ground, the increase in
tonnage and draught of vessels.
The extension, after the great fire of 1871, of the lumber and other
branches of trade, to the south end of the south branch, and the south-
east and the southwest forks therefrom, and in the north branch north
of Nickersonville, brought miles of newly navigable river into use, which
the tariff of 1870 did not cover. A new and much enlarged edition was
a necessity, and it was arranged and published at a cost of about one thou-
sand dollars, forming a copyrighted, durable masterpiece of experience,
study, labor and good judgment, embracing the names and tonnage of all
the vessels and propellers on the northwestern lakes, and about one hundred
thousand separate prices. Each of the subscribing tugs are furnished with
a full copy, well bound, and of the most convenient shape. The gentle-
men to whom the highest praise is clue for the arrangement of these new
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 429
tariff rates, are Captains J. A. Crawford, E. Van Dalson, F. Rich, William
Kahler and F. Davison.
There have been only three associations of tug owners and mana-
gers. Up to 1870, all the tugs "ran wild," that is, were handled and
operated by the individual owner or agent. The business had its
times of prosperity and times of adversity, and but little was said of such
a thing as a general pool until 1869. Times then being very dull, and
the supply of tugs far greater than the demand for them, owners were
forced to figure close, and in fact some were being ruined. The result
was a proposition to combine the entire fleet, and pool the earnings, and
when not actually needed, to lay up a portion of the tugs, and thus save
coal and other expenses. It was argued that if twenty tugs could do all
the work it was sheer folly to run forty. Therefore an association was
formed in June, 1870, consisting of thirty-seven tugs. The officers were
J. A. Crawford, President; J. Cox, Superintendent; — Hills, Secretary;
J. S. Dunham, Treasurer. This plan worked magnificently for the owners,
but unfortunately for the men employed by them. A part of the fleet
being: out of commission it naturallv followed that a number of men, well
O ^
trained in the business, and who had for years made it the'means of a liveli-
hood, were thrown out of employment; and as there were more tugmen
than tugs, wages decreased in accordance with the law of supply and
demand. The owners of the associated tugs, however, did well until
the managers of the association and some of the vessel men had a serious
misunderstanding about the payment of certain tow bills, the vessel men
refusing to settle and the association refusing to tow their vessels until the
disputed bills were fully paid. Both parties being stubborn, and to a cer-
tain extent right, the vessel men invoked the power of die government
and the city. The government responded feebly. But the officers of the
association maintained their position, and the result was that the vessel
owners of Chicago formed a joint stock company, which was called the
Vessel Owners' Towing Association, with a capital of about sixty
thousand dollars, and sent an agent to Buffalo, New York, to contract for
the building of five tugs. In 1871 the five new tugs arrived. A glance
at their names will suggest the cause of their existence. They were the
Rebel, Satisfaction, Black Ball No. 3, W. Brown and J. L. Higgie. The
association became a permanent institution and caused the other tug-
owners' association to dissolve in the Fall of 1871. After this dissolution
the tugs formerly belonging to the defunct combination "ran wild," and
in opposition to the Vessel Owners' Towing Association, until the Spring
of 1877. By that time the general feeling of revenge became exhausted,
and as nobody was making any money, a third association was formed,
not to include or directly oppose the Vessel Owners' Association, but to
work in harmony with it, the principal details of running to be settled
by the officers of and satisfactorily to both associations. The name of this
association was the Union Towing Association of Chicago. It contained
twenty-three first-class tugs, and was managed by J. S. Dunham, J. A.
43° CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
Crawford, E. Van Dalson, A. Leonard, F. Rich, Wm. Harmon, A. Bur-
ton and others. It proved remunerative for one year; served vessels
satisfactorily, and although one-third of the fleet was kept at the dock,
vessels were never delayed. At the expiration of a year, however, tugs
came here from all quarters and ran in opposition to both associations,
resulting in speedily killing the Union Towing Association, and now but
one remains, the Vessel Owners' Towing Association. This association
being controlled by heavy vessel and barge owners, it will probably be
permanent. It now owns twelve good tugs, and is building two more at
Buffalo.
Captain Job J. Hickman, to whom we are indebted for the facts in
this chapter, says: "It may afford satisfaction to some of the past and
present officers and others of those connected with tugs, to see in print my
opinion of these associations; and it is that all the associations spoken
of have had a good effect on the business, giving it strength, solidity and
respectability. They made collections better, caused them to be paid
more promptly and raised the general tone of the business, commercially
and morally. The general reputation of the tugs and tugmen now is good,
and I trust will ever remain so, for the tug and tugman are fixtures as
long as water flows."
The present business is run in the most perfect, simple and gentlemanly
manner by the following parties: Vessel Owners' Towing Association,
J. L. Higgie, Superintendent; Union Line, Wm. Harmon, Manager;
Crawford's Line, J. A. Crawford, Manager; Dunham's Line, J. S. Dun-
ham, Manager; Independent Line, E. Warner, Manager; and some other
parties own a few tugs. The main offices of the tug lines are all on South
Water street, at the lumber market. Some have branch offices up the
river. Tugs can be hired at any time, day or night, and started at once.
All the lines run night tugs, from the opening until the close of the season
of navigation. There can be no trouble in regard to prices, as nearly all
the vessel men have a copy of the tariff, to which they can refer, thereby
learning at a glance what any particular tow will cost. Full sets of books
are kept in all the offices, showing a complete, plain record of all towing
done by the respective lines, and all money received or paid out. The
crews of the tugs are paid by the month, and the stewards are paid for
furnishing meals cooked and served up. All coal is bought by the ton,
to be delivered on board, and all bills against the tugs, including the wages
of the crew, ai*e paid on the first of. each month for the month last past.
The general rule for towing in vessels, is, the first tug out takes the nearest
vessel, and so on in rotation, except when the weather is very rough or
when the tugs engage in racing for tows. In towing out, each tug tows
out the vessels she tows in, if not otherwise engaged. If thus engaged,
the collector of the line to which the tug belongs, sends some other tug
of his line, if he has one, and if not, he sends a tug of some other line,
the favor being reciprocated on the first opportunity.
A vessel is never required to use an anchor, and but seldom a stern
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 431
line, until she reaches her destination. The tug stops and lands the vessel
in all cases. When two tugs are used to tow a vessel, one tug makes fast
to each end, and by signaling each other with their whistles, the vessel is
handled and landed with comparative safety and ease, it making no differ-
ence which end of the vessel goes first, unless she is loaded. The engineers
have regular days allowed them to blow off their boilers to wash out the
sediment and scales. The city furnishes water through a hydrant near
the docks, to which the crew attach a rubber hose and lead it into the
boiler. The volume and force of the water quickly removes all dirt.
Then the engineer has what remains of the day to look over and repair
any part of the engine that may need it. The tugs are all inspected, and
the boilers tested, at least once a year, by the local inspectors.
All the tug offices have telephone connections all over the river,
and by that means a vesselman can call a tug to any part of the harbor
in a few minutes, without any expense or lost time in going down to the
tug office. No such time and trouble saving appliances as this were ever
even fancied a few years ago. The vesselman had to hunt the tug, or the
tug had to risk losing her time in going up to see if the vessel was ready
to tow. Before 1857 no tug ever undertook to stop and land a tow. The
vessel was towed to within a short distance of her destination and then
let go, to take care of herself. No night boats then ran, and no towing
that necessitated work after dark, was done.
There have been at least eight disastrous tug explosions here. The
first was the tug Eclipse, which blew up in the river between Madison
and Washington streets, in 1854. The only person killed was the engineer,
a colored man. She sank in the channel. Next came the Seneca, before
mentioned, which exploded her boiler in 1856, while in the draw of the
Randolph street bridge, killing the captain, a half-breed Indian. There
was but little if any water in the boiler at the time of the explosion.
The boat had been in the mud or sand a short time previous, and in work-
ing her engine there the pumps and valves were filled with sand,
and had stopped pumping for over an hour before the explosion. The
boiler was heated to a degree that it was burning the packing around
the plates and joints, and the woodwork near it. The crew, seeing the
danger, jumped overboard, but the captain, not observing the danger, or
failing to act upon his knowledge, was lost. The boat was a total
loss. The tug Union was the third victim of explosion. She blew up
in June, 1862. The accident' happened in the old channel just south of
the South Pier, and while she was towing out a large vessel which was
grain laden. The water in the channel was low, and it was blowing hard
from the south, forcing the tug to carry a heavy pressure of steam in
order to get the ves.se! out. The captain, T. Daily, and Captain Thos.
Boyd, then Harbor Master here, lost their lives, and Captain Chas. Hard-
ing wa^ permanently crippled. Captain John Prindiville, who with
Captains Boyd and Harding, were passengers, and the engineer, J. Judd,
were saved. The hull of the tug was afterward raised and rebuilt at
433 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
a large expense and is still running. Number four was the J. A. Craw-
ford, whose boiler exploded in June, 1863, while towing in a loaded vessel
around the south end of the bar, which then stretched along southward
from the North Pier and across the mouth of the harbor. The tug was
entirely new. There was no neglect or inattention to duty on the part
of the captain or engineer, who both perished. The name of the captain
was E. Ozier, and that of the engineer, J. Dunham. The boat was greatly
damaged, but was, however, raised and fitted out again, costing nearly as
much as she originally did. She is still on duty here. On the sixteenth
of May, 1865, the tug Success, under command of Captain Job J. Hick-
man, exploded her boiler in the river, near Mason's slip, killing the
engineer, Patrick Welch, the linesman, steward and a boy passenger, and
badly scalding the captain and three passengers — two ladies and a gentle-
man— also slightly scalding the fireman, James Walsh. The boiler was
blown clear out of the tug, but the hull was not much damaged. The
boiler was fished up out of the river and found to be little damaged.
The tug was repaired and is still here. No cause was ever assigned for
this catastrophe. The sixth explosion was that of the Fannie Stafford,
which occurred in July, 1865, in the river, a short distance north of Lake
street bridge, killing the engineer, and totally demolishing the hull and
boiler. A few parts of the engine only were recovered. A portion of the
boiler weighing over one ton went down through the roof and one floor
of a building on Lake street, landing in a room in which a family was
about sitting down to a meal. It was removed from the building by
cutting it up into pieces small enough to pass through the doors. The
boat was only about one year old, and was a fine, handy business boat,
owned by a good, honest, hard-working citizen, Captain J. Chandler, who
had paid the last payment due on her but a few days before the accident.
She was not insured, and the unfortunate owner lost all his hard earnings,'
for years before, and then left this part of the country in disgust. As to
the cause of the explosion, it was only known that the tug was at the
time employed in towing a large loaded vessel, and had stopped working
her engine to allow the crew to shorten up the tow-line. The crew were
all at the stern hauling in the line, except the engineer, who was last seen
at the engine room door. The tug Red Jacket was number seven in this
list of catastrophies. In May, 1866, her boiler exploded. She was land-
ing a vessel at the North Pier. In this accident the captain, R. Green,
was killed. The tug was nearly new, and no cause was known for the
explosion except the fact that the boiler was tested a day or two before,
and, perhaps, had been strained in some part that did not show at the time.
At all events the boiler was pronounced good and all right by the inspec-
tors. The hull was hauled out and rebuilt, and she is still running here.
At the time of the accident she was owned by A. Seavort and M. Shields.
The next in this list was the last and saddest of all. The tug C. W.
Parker's boiler exploded in September, 1879, on the lake near Lincoln
Park, instantly killing four men, and nearly drowning the fifth and only
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 433
survivor. The tug had taken the tow-line of a vessel only about ten
minutes and was going along all right. It was good clear daylight, and
all hands were wide awake and at their respective posts of duty; but in
an instant and without warning a tug and four men were no more. The
names of the men were Captain Robert Leary, engineer Callahan, steward
Burton. The name of the fireman cannot be ascertained. The linesman
was the only one saved. He was sitting in the stern at the time of the
accident, and the force of the explosion was not in that direction. The
wreck of the tug was dragged into the harbor and into a dry dock, and
there examined by the owners and condemned. Some parties, however,
bought the whole shattered hull and machinery for two hundred and fifty
dollars and fitted her out again the next Summer. She is here still. At
the time of the accident she was owned by the Vessel Owners' Towing
Association, and was said to be their best tug. No part of the boiler was
ever found, and no cause can be given for the destruction of that fine tug.
Captain Hickman in writing upon this subject says: "The days of
tug and other boiler explosions will, I trust, be few and short; but there
is no knowing what hour will bring the shocking report of some boiler
having blown up with fatal consequences. The general government has
done something in the last few years to prevent boiler explosions, but more
yet remains to be done. Such accidents as h/ve occurred in our waters
should be sufficient to force inquiry and spggest invention, with a view
of preventing further loss of life and property, by making it absolutely
impossible to blow up a boiler after it is pronounced perfect by the Gov-
ernment Inspector. This sad list of tug boiler explosions at Chicago
alone tells of an actual loss of eighteen men, while others though not
killed were crippled or disfigured for life. In referring to these things,
of sad memory, I may open anew heart wounds that time has partly
healed, but I do it in the hope that by bringing the facts to public notice
I may be helping to protect some member of our tug boat fraternity, and
to be the humble means of securing future safety for even one good, honest
soul."
The following are the names of some of the prominent tug owners
of the past: — Granger, J. Nyeman, — Durfee, M. Green, A. F. Gardner,
Wm. Burton, C. Walker, G. Ozier, G. W. Wood, Singer & Talcott, J.
Prindiville, Greenleaf & Lurkins, A. Mussey, — Scoville, — Miller, Miller
Brothers, Seavort & Shields, Joseph Miner, C. Myers, A. Leonard, L.
& T. Colburn, F. Green, L. B. Johnson, Strong & Beardsley, J. P.
Hubbard, A. Burton, I. I. Eaton, A. Leonard, — Clute, James Chandler,
Joseph Dalton, J. Stafford, J. Greenhaugh, Greenhaugh Brothers, J. Cox,
Donaldson Brothers, C. Whitney, J. Ebernatha and F. Rich.
The following are some of the names of present prominent tug
owners: J. A. Crawford, J. S. Dunham, Wm. Harmon, J. Johnson,
Geo. Gilman, O. B. Green, E. Van Dalson, A.Johnson, F. Minskie, Geo.
McLane, J. Brown, Joseph Gilston, J. J. Hickman, C. Forsyth, Vessel
Owners' Towing Association, J. Bowman, Chicago D. & D. Company,
434 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
H. Fox & Company, — Wilson, J. McLaughlin, Wm. Welsh, R. Brown,
D. Dall, H. Blue, J. Rowell, C. Theilikie and E. Walker.
Below will be found the names of some of the first tug captains and
others connected with the business prior to 1880: E. Kelly, J. Nyeman,
— Burton, J. Wilson, — Packard, J.J. Hickman, — Green, J. A. Crawford,
Wm. Crawford, Gordon Ozier, J. Prindiville, R. Ballentine, Wm. Harmon,
E. Roach, Wm. Kelly, Jerome Ozier, M. Fitzgerald, J. Chandler, A.
Leonard, Jas. McGinn, — Van Dalson,'H. Hawkins, E. McCumber, Wm.
Lurkins,J. Downing, W. Shields, J. Baltis, M. Galivan, Joseph Gilston, R.
Tyrrell, G. Van Dalson, R. Brewer, B. Brewer, J. Everett, H. Blue, A.
Napier, E. Napier, E. Ozier, S. Curtis, F. Green, R. Green, J. Green, A.
Green, S. Green, G. Green, A. Seavort, Jas. Crowley, J. Tierney, A.John-
son, C. Johnson, J. Kerns, J. Ogden, A. Wilson, E. Wilson, J. Foley, P.
Foley, Jas. St. Clair, F. Nyeman, T. Colburn, J. S. Dunham, J. P. Hubbard,
M. Driscoll, P. Gorman, T. O'Brien, — Navaugh, A. Seavort, C. Whitney,
A. Gooding, T. Howard, E. Maloy, R. Leary, F. W. Bondreaw, A.
Green, F. Butler, J. Swenie, Wm. Hammond, G. Jewell, G. McDonald,
S. J. Green, R. Teed, — Ryder, L. Grey, A. Quinn, J. Joice, J. Sellers,
C. Mussey, C. Mahoney, A. Dobson, E. Jefferson and J. Furguson.
The death roll of tug captains is as follows : — Bingham, F. Green,
L. B. Johnson, G. W. Wood, T. O'Brien, J. Wilson, Geo. Clute, John
Green, Jas. Crowley, Jos. Rush, Wm. Hammond, John Joice, E. Maloy,
John Sellers, P. Pifer, Jos. Miner, A. Gooding, E. Ozier, T. Daily, R.
Leary, R. Green and Jas. Crowley.
Captain Bingham, who heads this list of the dead, was the first
captain who ran the little side-wheeler, Archimedes. He ran her until
she was worn out, and her owners built the fine double engine, screw tug,
G. B. McClellan. When this tug was built, Captain Bingham stepped
from the poor old Archimedes onto her, and the Archimedes was no
more. He ran the McClellan for a number of years, and until his death.
He had hosts of friends who mourned his loss. At the time of his
death Captain Bingham had just finished a good comfortable home, and
had laid up a few dollars for his family, and was, in fact, about to take
a respite from his labors, when he gave his life for his fellow citizens. In
very cold weather the ice in the lake and around the city water works
crib packed around the valves and strainers to an extent that the water
was almost shut off from the entire city. People were alarmed, for aside
of short supply for domestic purposes, there was but little to be had in
case of a fire in the heart of the city. The aid of a tug was sought by
the city officials, and Captain Bingham went out to the crib, dove under
water, and cleared away the ice and enabled the full supply of water
to come into the city. Becoming thoroughly chilled while in the water, he
contracted a cold which developed into quick consumption, and ended
his life. He gave his valuable life to the people of Chicago, and his
memory deserves even a better preservation than a single mention upon
the page of history.
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 435
Captain F. Green was drowned by the capsizing of his tug, the
Watson, at the mouth of the harbor, in April, 1870, while towing out
a light lumber vessel. The south wind being fair, the vessel had most
of her sails set, and getting clear of the end of the South Pier, the full
force of the wind was felt. The vessel shot ahead faster than the tug
could run, and the tow-line being short, stiff and large, it could not be let
go in time to save the tug. The tug was pulled around by the stern, and
striking the vessel's bow, rolled over and sank. The linesman, John
Gerrity, and L. B. Johnson, a part owner of the tug, and at the time
vice president of the association to which the tug belonged, were also
drowned. These men were highly respected by all who knew them.
The bodies were not all recovered until two weeks after the accident.
G. Wi Wood, after whom a large .tug, built here by Crawford
& Bowman, was named, at one time an owner, a pure, honest, sociable,
intellectual gentleman, died after a short sickness, in 1870, and was mourned
by a very large circle of friends.
Captain Gordon Ozier died in 1866, after a long career of vessel and
tug handling. He was an elder brother of Captain E. Ozier — killed on
the tug Crawford — and also of Captain Jerome Ozier, now in the insur-
ance business in Chicago. He was most notable for canal boat towing,
going into that branch in 1855, and remaining in it to the time of his
death. He first built the tug Warner; then bought the Follet; next built
the Constitution, and lastly bought the Success, a few months previous
to his death. His heart and purse were always open to any case of actual
distress or want.
Captain A. Gooding, although but a few months here, made hosts
of friends by his manly conduct and devotion to principle. He had served
a good long lifetime on the water, and died in a most singular manner,
being found standing dead at the wheel of his tug. It was at night, and
the tug was going out into the lake. It was finally noticed by the crew
that the tug was running in a curious crooked manner, and the linesman
went forward and looked into the pilot house. He supposed the captain
to be asleep, and stepping in shook a dead man!
Captain R. Green, killed on the tug Red Jacket, was a fine young
man, smart and joyous, too young to feel the many cares of this world,
and too happy to ever intend to feel them. He was a general favorite,
kind, gentlemanly and generous to a fault. He went to his grave in the
Springtime of manhood. He was a member of a large and highly
respected family, whose names have been, are now and will be for years
connected with the tug business here.
Captain John Green, who died here recently, was also a member
of the last named family. He was also a noble specimen of manhood,
whose loss is greatly felt in business and social circles.
The Chicago tug men deservedly claim that they did good service
at the time of the great fire in 1871. Their achievements are certainly
worthy of record. On that memorable occasion, when the conflagration
436 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
first started, the tugs Constitution, Success and Brothers were lying at
Bridgeport. On the morning of the tenth of October they came down
to the south end of the fire with their tows, which were canal boats, but
could not get below Taylor street. The tows were left above Twelfth
street, and the tugs were brought into service upon the fire, which was
spreading southeast. They were placed at the foot of Taylor street and
by the combined use of their pony pumps and hose, and by covering the
sides and roof of a building belonging to the Illinois Stone Company
with wet blankets, quilts and carpet, the building was saved, with all its
valuable contents. The saving of that building, saved the lumber piles
in the yards south of and alongside of it and all on the east side of the
river. There were two or three engines stationed on the west side of
the river, but they could not help the South Side, and no engines were
to be had until some came from Milwaukee. The tugs stuck to it and
did noble work. They not only stopped the fire spreading in the locality
named, but helped the West Side engines until relieved in the afternoon
by an engine from Milwaukee; and then the tugs furnished coal to the
engine and food to the crew, who were worn out, having been working
on some other fire all of the day and night previous to coming here.
The tugs then worked as .long as they could do any good, on the docks
and other property on the West Side, saving considerable property. At
the close of the day two of the tugs went to Twelfth street and laid up,
and the other, the Constitution, finished a good day's work by saving a new
canal boat with a full load of fine large dimension stone on board. The
tug M. Boole happened to be south of Twelfth street when the fire broke
out and was compelled to remain there, as she had no hose or pony pump
and would be of no service except to tow a few vessels a short distance
up the river out of the reach of the fire. The crew of the Boole did not
eat on board, but boarded at a restaurant down town. The crew becom-
ing hungry, and not being able to get anything to eat where they were,
the captain, James Kerns, determined upon attempting to run through
the burning district and get down town. He did try it, but failed to get
north of Van Buren street; the tug was in great danger of being burned,
and the crew almost suffocated by the smoke, heat and gas. After some
trouble the tug was turned around and started back, and when near
Harrison street the crew heard a cry for help, and saw something moving
about on a canal boat. It was dangerous work to stop there with the
tug, but a human being was praying for help, and such a cry has never
been disregarded by a sailor. The tug was run up to the boat, and then
it was discovered that a man and woman were on board and alive, and
it was learned that they had been there during the entire previous night
and so far that day. They were on that boat surrounded by burning
bridges, docks, dredges, scows, pile-drivers, derricks, wood and coal piles,
fences and buildings, sixteen or eighteen hours. The man was captain
of the boat, and when first roused by the cries of fire, he found that he
was hemmed in. To go in any direction was sure and speedy death, and
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 437
so they seized pails and threw water all over the boat, put wet blankets
around themselves and fought the fire. At times being almost choked
by the heat and smoke they would go down to the bottom of the boat
under the stone deck, where there was no heat and very little smoke.
But the cabins and all the boat above water would become dry and begin
to burn in a few minutes, and the trips had to be short and were numer-
ous; but they ran up and down in that manner until rescued. When they
were rescued by the Boole they were found to be fearfully burned; their
faces, hands and arms were a mass of white and red blisters, and they were
unable to stand or speak plainly; they both lived to see the city rebuilt.
We believe they both are still living. This couple who were at the same
time both unfortunate and fortunate were Captain C. Hushing and wife.
The captain of the Boole reported the boat as not being then much burned,
but refused to risk trying to get her out Of the fire, and the Constitution,
with a volunteer crew, consisting of Captains Hickman, Hubbard and
Crowley, went to her rescue, and the boat and her load was brought up
to Twelfth street in safety.
At the other end of the fire a little tug was earning laurels of praise.
The Magnolia, Captain Joseph Gilston, being alone at the piers east of Rush
street, as the fire was about sweeping across the river, before a strong south
wind, towed out into the lake, or placed at anchor, or in other positions
of safety, steamboats, vessels, scows and other craft. As the wall
of fire drew near the river, men, women and children came running to the
docks but could go no further, the only bridge — Rush street — being in
flames. Then the little tug became a free ferry boat, and carried them all
over to the North Pier, before the flames quite reached them. No one
was drowned, burned or harmed. No one can conjecture how many
would have perished if there had been no tug there at the time.
After the fire had somewhat subsided the tug Little Giant, carried
a trunk containing eight hundred thousand dollars from the cellar of the
lighthouse, where it had been hidden by a negro, to the Milwaukee rail-
road depot, whence it was sent to its owner.
The people are more dependent upon the tugs than many of them
think. During the severe cold Winter of 1880-1 a tug was working day
and night at the water works crib, for weeks being unable to get into the
harbor on account of the vast fields of ice then in the lake. These few
instances, with hundreds of others, such as rescuing people who fall into
the river almost daily, go to show that there is -some good humane pur-
poses to which the tugs are always cheerfully applied.
Captain Hickman, with others of the tug fraternity, feels, as before
stated in this chapter, that many of the restrictions placed upon the tug
business are unjust and grievously burdensome. In writing upon this
subject he remarks: "I will mention some of our troubles. The recent
passage by the City Council of an ordinance closing the main bridges
across the river for an hour each morning and evening, forces us to com-
plain bitterly. The tug business has had a struggle of some magnitude
438 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
for the past twenty years with the city and the railroad interests. The
many obstructions thrown across the river are sources of great trouble
to us. The bridges are so numerous, slowly handled, and often unlaw-
fully held closed for from ten to thirty minutes, that tugs and vessels are
forced to stop and lose much valuable time in each case, and the number
of those cases being from six to twelve in a distance of one mile, it will
easily be seen that we are compelled to suffer severely. We have to fight
the city, steam and hoi'se railroads, and in fact it looks to us as if the entire
population assume that we have no right to demand a right of way.
The mass of the people firmly believe that the city made this river navi-
gable by dredging it out from time to time, and for that reason can and
will build all the bridges it wishes, and open them when and how it thinks
proper. Even the leading newspapers editorially advance the same views.
In answer to this, we of the water have always been given to understand
that this river from Lake Michigan to its southern extremity, a distance
of miles, was a navigable river and under control of the general govern-
ment, just the same as the lake, surveyed by the government, laid down
on its charts, and a right of way guaranteed to all properly licensed craft
that may wish to use it. I know that Chicago river was navigable to
every vessel of the present tonnage long before a white man ever wanted
to use it, and before a town was built upon its banks, or a white man had
any business to transact here. In the year 1858 I towed vessels and
propellers from the piers to Bridgeport, drawing over twelve feet of water,
and without getting them stuck in the channel. In the Fall of 1880 I saw
lots of this class of craft stuck fast in the channel. If this river is not
government water how is it that we cannot run our boats on it without
first obtaining a license from the government? It is a problem for some
wise head to solve. A loud complaint is made against a tug or vessel
when causing a bridge to open, by a multitude of people who never pay
one cent of taxes. They petition the council through some alderman,
who is, too often, a tax eater and owns nothing, and the next we hear
is that an ordinance is passed restricting, altering and even abolishing to
navigation the use of its own highway.
The Chicago tugmen themselves are a smart, generous, courageous,
intelligent, law abiding class of tax paying citizens, who toil through rain
and shine, heat and cold, by day and night, to bring into die harbor vessels
laden with valuable freight of every description, the value and handling
of which makes profit and< employment for thousands of the thoughtless
people who, if detained five minutes at a bridge, hurl curses at the men
who are bringing them their daily bread and future wealth. We use the
river but about two-thirds of the year, and for the balance of the time,
while we are handing out what we have saved, the city is filling up our
river with a far worse sewerage than gas. Deal fairly and justly with
the tugman and he will return the favor. He loves Chicago, and glories in
her greatness, but he also knows that he is entitled to some little con-
sideration. Tugs and tugmen can go to some other locality, but Chicago
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
must remain here, and the grass grows on every bridge that does not
open to allow some kind of merchant marine vessel to pass through."
For the first time, therefore, has the inside working of this business,
which is externally so familiar to our people, been described. In all that
Captain Hickman says with reference to the usefulness of the tugs and
tug men to Chicago, every intelligent person will agree; and no one who
properly appreciates the best good of Chicago would do anything to
hamper the business in the river, beyond a reasonable degree. Of course
the business on the streets must also be accommodated, and each class, the
sailor and the landsman, should feel that they are mutually dependent,
and accordingly be willing to make mutual concessions. In judging
of our own and others rights, we should always endeavor to remember
that our rights are seldom absolute,, but are conditional.
440
CHAPTER XXXIII.
THE LADY ELGIN DISASTER.
On the seventh of September, 1860, the Lady Elgin, a well known
excursion steamer, Captain John Wilson, with several hundred passengers
on board, was sunk in Lake Michigan. The clei-k of the boat, H. G. Caryl,
who was among the saved, gave the following account of the disaster:
"The Lady Elgin left the port of Chicago at half past seven o'clock last
night for Lake Superior, with between three and four hundred passengers
on board. Among them were the Union Guards, of Milwaukee, com-
posing a part of some two hundred and fifty excursionists from this city.
About half past two o'clock this morning, the schooner Augusta, Captain
Malott, of Oswego, came in collision with the Lady Elgin, and when
about ten miles from shore, the vessel struck the steamer at the midship
gangway on the larboard side; the two separated immediately, and the
Augusta drifted by in darkness. At the moment of the collision there
were music and dancing in the forward cabin. In an instant after the
crash all was still, and in half an hour the steamer sank. I passed through
the cabins; the ladies were pale but silent; there was not a cry or shriek;
no sound but the rush of steam and the surge of the heavy sea. Whether
they were not fully aware of their danger, or whether their appalling
situation made them speechless, I cannot tell. A boat was lowered at
once, with the design of going around upon the larboard side to examine
the leak. There were two oars, but just at the moment some person
possessed himself of one of them, and we were left powerless to manage
the boat. We succeeded once in reaching the wheel, but were drifted
away and thrown upon the beach at Winetka. Only two boats left the
steamer; one of them contained thirteen passengers, all of whom were
saved; the other bore eight, but only four of them reached the shore
alive, the others being drowned at the beach. Before I left the steamer,
the engine had ceased to work, the fires having been extinguished, and
within thirty minutes the Lady Elgin had disappeared. The force
and direction of the wind were such that the boats and fragments of the
wreck were driven up the lake and would reach the shore along in
the vicinity of Winetka. As I stood upon the beach helplessly lookin«-
back along the route we had drifted, I could see in the gray of the morn-
ing, objects floating upon the water, and sometimes, I thought, human
beings struggling with the waves."
On the morning of the seventh the lake in every direction was filled
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 441
with fragments of the wreck, to which fifty or sixty human beings clung
for a time, but few, however, reaching the shore. The surf ran fearfully
in shore, and in almost every instance when the rafts came within a few
rods of the shore the heavy rollers would capsize them within sight and
hailing distance of those on the land. The CHICAGO EVENING JOURNAL
from whose files these facts are gathered, contained the description of
many thrilling incidents. The saving of David Eviston and wife, of Mil-
waukee, created the greatest excitement. The gallant fellow was seen
some distance out upon the top of the wheel-house, holding his wife by
one arm and clinging with the other to his frail ark. As he reached the
shore a fearful surf capsized his raft, and its burden was out of sight for
several seconds. When they arose the wife was at some distance from
the raft. The husband left the wheel-house, swam to his wife, seized
her and again regained the wheel-house. All on shore held their breath
while they approached a second time. At one moment they would appear
high in the air, and the next were buried out of sight beneath the terrible
surges. At last the wheel-house grounded some distance from the beach,
when the man, with his wife in his arms, jumped off and commenced
wading to the land. He had proceeded but a short distance when he sank
exhausted, when Edward Spencer, a student at the Garret Biblical Insti-
tute, who with a rope tied about his body, had been rendering noble
service in saving life, caught the exhausted man and brought him to the
shore.
Early on the morning of the ninth, the beach between Chicago and
Lake View was covered with people in carriages, on horseback, and on
foot, eagerly scanning the still turbulent surface of the lake, for some
signs of the poor humanity which had been swallowed up by the waters-
Now and then some dark object came in sight, tossing hither and thither,
now buried from view and again appearing. As it neared the shore some
brave swimmer would plunge in and drag to the shore the body of
some unfortunate, with disheveled hair, distorted and blackened coun-
tenance and clayey garments, which for more than two days had been
the sport of the waters, and was at last reluctantly yielded up to sleep in
a more peaceful grrwe.
All along the beach pieces of the wreck came ashore, and portions
of the lost steamer's freight, carcasses of oxen — she had some hundred
and fifty head of cattle on board, which the captain ordered to be thrown
overboard, immediately after the collision — coils of rope, fenders, oars,
barrels of flour, boxes and bales were thickly scattered along the beach.
The rudder of the boat was found unbroken and partially bedded in the
sand at Lake View; a short distance further north her figure head was
found upon the beach, and at Evanston her immense arches and a large
part of her hulk was half buried in the sand and clay.
As fast as the bodies were recovered they were conveyed to the Mar-
shal's office in the Chicago Court House, in wagons and by special train.
All day long the Court House square was filled with an excited crowd.
442 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
Many had lost friends, and sobs and moans, and occasional frantic shrieks,
went up from the vast throng, which swarmed upon the stairs and in the
areas, and even clambered up to the windows. As each new body came
in the people pressed forward, eager to catch one glimpse, fearful and yet
hoping that it might be the body of some friend or relative. Mothers
were seeking for children and children for mothers; husbands for wives
and wives for husbands, and as one would be recognized, the flowing
tears, piteous moans and wringing hands, told of the frantic grief of those
whom death had bereaved. Strong men who had no friends among the
lost, yet wept like children.
Inside the Marshal's office the scene was appalling. The bodies
were stretched upon the floor in rows. There were gray headed men,
matured women, youth and infancy. Some of the faces were so calm
that they seemed to be in the repose of slumber; others were swollen^
disturbed and blackened. Some were handsomely dressed, while others
had had their clothing torn into shreds. One sweet little child, about six
years of age, chubby and white as marble, had smiled in dying, and cleath
had photographed that smile upon its beautiful face. There it laid,
a beautifully formed girl lying upon one side of it, and a strong, gray
haired man, with lips firmly set, ghastly staring eyes and fists firmly
clenched, on the other. It was a fearful picture of death.
The coroner, William James, impaneled the following jury: John C»
Miller, foreman; John Boorman, Robert McLoon, Dr. J. R. Gore, N.
R. Dean, G. Fitch, G. Watson, W. H. Reynolds, G. H. Eveleth, William
P. Sanford, H. B. Smith and D. W. Boss. After a most thorough investiga-
tion the following verdict was returned on the twenty-fourth of September:
"The jury find that the steamer Elgin was thoroughly inspected in
June previous to the disaster, and from the evidence before them of her*
builders, the different officers who have commanded her, and persons who
have repaired and inspected her, they believe she was a seaworthy steamer.
They find that the evidence of the United States inspectors which
has been before them, is to the effect that she was properly equipped with
boats, floats, oars, axes, buckets aud other means of preserving life, in
accordance with the laws of the United States.
They find that they had aboard the requisite number of officers and
crew and that her officers were competent and sober men. That her cer-
tificate of inspection permitted her to carry three hundred passengers, two
hundred in the cabin and one hundred on deck. That on the night of the
disaster she had on board more than three hundred passengers; but they
have no evidence of the exact number.
They find further in this regard that the testimony of experts pre-
sented before them was to the effect that the United States certificate
of inspection concerning the number of passengers, is given to boats upon
the calculation of a certain number of feet to each passenger, and that
five or six hundred passengers would not be a dangerous load for the Lady
Elgin; yet the jury censure the owner and officers of the boat for receiv-
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 443
ing aboard more passengers than the law permitted, and say that it is
a dangerous and far too common practice to overload steamboats on the
occasion of an excursion such as the present.
They are of the opinion that the inspector's certificate should be, in
all cases, strictly followed and enforced, and although, in this case, the
disaster seems not to have been caused by this excess of passengers, yet
there can be no excuse for exceeding the number allowed the Lady Elgin
by a legal certificate.
The jury find that the schooner Augusta had on board the proper
number of officers and men; that Captain Malott of the Augusta is
a competent and experienced seaman, and that they have no proof of the
general competency and qualifications of the other officers or of the crew
of the Augusta.
They find that both the steamer and the schooner had their lights
placed on the night of the disaster, in accordance with the requirements
of the law, and they consider the first cause of the collision to be the
defective arrangement of the lights, as appointed by law to be carried on
sailing vessels. Under the present -law a vessel when carrying a bright
light may vary her course at least eight points without being obliged to
alter the color or arrangement of her lights, and that the variation in the
course of a vessel of any one of these points is liable at any time to prove
fatal to lake craft.
The jury, as a further cause of the disaster, censure the second mate
of the schooner Augusta for not informing the captain of the light, when
he came on deck previous to the collision, and for neglecting to keep
watch of the steamer's lights,' since he testifies that he saw them three-
quarters of an hour previous to the collision, and they further find that
the second mate was incompetent to manage the schooner.
The jury further find from the evidence before them, that the schooner
Augusta was seen by the steamer Lady Elgin, some four or five minutes
before the collision, and that the wheel was put hard a port, and that the
order to place the wheel in that position was such a one as experts testify
should have been given under the circumstances.
The jury find further that Captain Malott is censurable for not laying
to, or coming to an anchor and hoisting a light in the rigging, after the
collision, to ascertain whether the steamer was in need of assistance, inas-
much as he should have been aware from the shock of the collision that
serious damage was clone to the steamer.
They find that the captain and engineer of the Lady Elgin stood at
their 'posts after the collision and did their duty nobly to the last.
The jury are of the opinion that all lake passenger boats should
invariably be built with water tight compartments, and are confident that
had this been the case with the Lady Elgin, the community would have
been spared the shock of this lamentable disaster."
This verdict was signed by John C. Miller, foreman; William Roscoe
Dean, John Nelson, W. H. Reynolds, J. R. Gore, W. P. Sanford, George
/I j/j CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
H. Eveleth, R. L. McLoon, W. H. Castor, D. T. Hale, Henry M. Smith
and S. W. King. The latter two, however, made the following protest:
"We have signed the above with the distinct understanding of reserving
our right to protest against its findings in certain points wherein we are
constrained to a different view as hereafter stated. We find that the Lady
Elgin was mismanaged, and so censurable, previous to the collision, in the
following important particulars: Insufficiency of her lookouts. The law
is distinct and explicit in requiring in her class of passenger-carrying
steamers, two lookouts, who 'have no other duty,' nor can these be made
to include in any sense the officers on deck. If custom and practice,
defensible or not, has induced in our lake steamers a disregard of this
strict rule on ordinary occasions, the night in question was one which in
our view called for its observance to a letter, where a steamer freighted
with four hundred passengers was running in a stormy and tempestuous
night. The evidence shows that the outlook was not strict, nor proper
and reasonable caution observed. If there were, as the testimony shows,
circumstances by the intense severity of the squall rendering it impossible
to command the view to windward, it became then of imperative necessity
that the steamer in her management should have been put into the condi-
tions for safe precaution us.ua! and common in running in such weather,
heavy fog and snow squalls, or such a tempest of wind and ra'n as was
at that time prevailing, such as placing extra, or the legally required look-
outs, slowing her rate of speed, and otherwise adopting precautions
familiar to mariners. There is no evidence that either of these was done.
On the contrary, the utter absence of every such precautionary measure
was shown. The steamer was being run at her usual speed when the
collision took place, and her headway carried her at once far from the scene
of the collision and away from the colliding vessel. We regret that we
must differ, not only from members of this jury, but from official testimony
and statement upon points most gravely connected with the responsibility
of the steamer Lady Elgin for the results of the disaster subsequent to the
collision. From all the facts in our possession we ai'e forced to the con-
viction that she was illy and inadequately supplied with boats. That
these are not of the description required by law, and hence not such as
should have received the approval of the marine inspectors of this port.
Not more than one of the four boats could be called a 'life boat.' The
others were ordinary wooden ship's boats, not the best of their class, and
in poor condition, while not one of the four was provided with safe
and proper appliances and outfit. Their means for launching wej-e de-
fective and inefficient. They were supplied with neither oars nor life
lines, all of which facts are abundantly established by the history of this
disaster as given in the testimony of survivors. But two of these boats
are heard of in preserving life. One of them is 'thrown over the side.'
The stern boat is launched with a single oar, and both are used, as we can
but believe, for the sole purpose of carrying a large portion of the officers
and crew away from the ill-fated and sinking steamer.
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 445
We must further express our conviction that the steamer's outfit
of life preservers was faulty and defective both as regards the kind adopted,
the common plank float, and especially their location on board the steamer.
The testimony shows that among the early exertions of numbers on board
the sinking steamer, was the passing of these life floats down through
the windows of the attic roof of the upper cabin to affrighted passen-
gers. It can scarcely be denied that a means of relief thus supplied must
necessarily have been limited in its efficiency, and have left very many
unreached. We do not bear with much weight upon the question whether
a greater outlay should not have secured for the Lady Elgin a better
description of life preservers, as certainly such do exist, but even granting
all that is claimed for these, we have no doubt of the impropriety and
error of thus placing the life preservers provided, remote from the ready
access and reach of passengers.
We cannot consistently with our views of duty, too severely blame
the marine inspectors in thus allowing the humane and wise intents
of our laws for the safety of passengers, to be defeated in the manner
named, and we believe that the loss of many lives on this occasion is due
to the culpable disregard of duty. Until marine inspectors' certificates
are less readily procured, and are made to bear more strict relation to the
actual state of matters they are sworn to supervise, the only result of their
official existence or efforts will be but a fancied and false security in the
minds of passengers, ready at any moment to be as rudely and fearfully
dissipated as by the harrowing- events of the disaster of the steamer Lady
Elgin. We call upon inspectors to adhere more strictly to the letter
of the law in enforcing compliance with the same, regulating the outfit
of passenger steamers. What changes might thus be immediately wrought
on board steamers now in service is not for the jury to determine, but we
may express the fear that the continuance of present official neglect will
devolve such investigations from time to time upon other jurors sworn to
like sad duties as our own."
The public, however, could not reach the same conclusions as were
reached by these dissenting jurors. The Lady Elgin was a good boat,
owned by a gentleman who could not have been induced by the gift of
a world to purposely endanger the life of a single individual, and she was
in charge of a competent and brave set of officers.
The majority of those who were lost belonged to Milwaukee. The
following, however, were residents of Chicago: John F. Morrison, Richard
Alexander, Michael Rich, Jerry Thomas, Louis Diehl, Captain John Wil-
son, W. W. Homer, Margaret Codd, Bridget Foley and George K. Locke.
The Lady Elgin was built in Buffalo, New York, in 1851, by Bidwell
& Banta, and made her first trip to Chicago under command of Captain
Applebee. She originally cost ninety-six thousand dollars, and was esti-
mated to be worth at the time of the disaster thirty thousand dollars, being
insured for twenty-four thousand dollars. She was owned at the time by
Gurclon S. Hubbard.
CHAPTER XXXIV.
GYMNASTICS IN CHICAGO.
The development of the human form is one of the highest duties
devolving upon the human race, and one which in our own country is
becoming more and more neglected. The result is seen in the pale
cheeks of not only thousands of our women, but of thousands of our
men as well. Not only extreme effeminacy but a weakness of the system
amounting to positive unhealth would seem to be the grand object which
a large proportion of American people in our cities seek to attain. Our
young ladies, in entirely too many instances, avoid health-giving exercise
of every character, and become as the tender plant which droops beneath
the first touch of frost or -before the first breath of the hurricane. Our
men from close application to many kinds of business deprive themselves
of all physical exercise, and become as weak as children. In a city like
this there are men who do not even walk the distance of a dozen blocks
in an entire month's time. The inevitable consequence of such a flagrant
outrage upon nature, is early decay and premature death. While the
exercises of the gymnasium may be carried to an unwarrantable extreme,
and may have some features that are not pleasant to the majority of people,
the gymnasium is, nevertheless, an unquestionable public blessing, and
should be more generally patronized. It would be, too, if in America
we had not come to regard money making as the great aim of life. We
abuse health, actually limit our real pleasures, and neglect to seek the full
development of the most beautiful thing on earth — a perfect body, in our
mad rush to accumulate fortunes. In Chicago especially, nine-tenths of
our people are endeavoring to accomplish a vast deal more than is possible
of accomplishment, and the requirements of the physical nature are
necessarily slighted.
In ancient times the matter of physical development was regarded as
of the highest importance. The Greeks were the first to originate athletic
exercises, and there appears to be no doubt that they were a part of their
military training. Every free born citizen was under obligation to take
up arms in an emergency, and this necessitated agility, strength, endur-
ance, skill in the use of weapons and in the use of the chariot. All the
contests of the arena therefore, were simply preparatory to active warfare.
The superior athlete was respected and honored because he was regarded
as a superior soldier, one whose strong arms could be relied upon in
conliict with his nation's foes. "In the first record of athletic games,''
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 447
using the words of the Chicago TRIBUNE, "those celebrated by the Epeans
at the funeral of their king, Amarynces, the competitors were the flower
of the youthful warriors of France. Chief among them was Nestor. It
is in his mouth that Homer has put the recital of his exploits on this
occasion. Reminded of them by the feats of the warriors who took part
in the games celebrated at the funeral of Patroclus, the old man exclaims:
'Oh, had I now the force I felt of yore,
Known thro' Buprasiuin and the Pylian shore!
Victorious then in every solemn game,
Ordained to Amarynces' mighty name,
The brave Epeans gave my glory way,
.•Etolians, Pylians, all resigned the day.
J quell'd Clytomedes in fight of hand,
And backward hurl'd Anca?us on the sand,
Surpass'd Iphyclus in the swift career,
Phyleus and Polydorus with the spear.'
The aim, and to a certain extent, the nature of the athletic exercises,
underwent considerable modification in the course of time. The pro-
fessional athletes came into existence, the highest object of whose ambition
was the crown which adorned the victor's brow and the laudatory verses
of the poets; who considered the useless triumphs of the arena a sufficient
reward for years of the severest training and voluntary subjection to
privation and hardships. Among the people, for whom the games were
a source of pleasurable excitement, the athletes soon rose to be in high
favor. But by those whose judgment was not influenced by the unreason-
ing taste of the multitude, many a protest was raised against a profession
which they held to be useless to the State and often pernicious to indi-
viduals."
But with all the unpleasant characteristics of ancient or modern
athletic exercises, they are of the highest usefulness, under proper regula-
tion. Chicago has recognized their value not only through the connection
of some of our most prominent citizens with some of the gymnasiums
which have been established, but by maintaining the Chicago Athenaeum,
than which no better establishment of its kind exists in the country. So
far as an unusual degree of muscular development is concerned, Chicago
stands almost abreast with the world. Kingsley R. Olmsted, whose
name appears elsewhere in this book, and who is one of our oldest
citizens, has lifted in harness two thousand eight hundred and fifty pounds,
and by hand-lift one thousand one hundred and seventy-five pounds.
Charles K. Olmsted, a son of the first named, performed at one time the
extraordinary feat of shoving a dumb bell, weighing one hundred and
seventy-two pounds, arms length above his head, twice. This, indeed,
was a performance which has never been equaled west of New York city.
The first gymnasium was opened in what was known as Irving Hall,
located at 112 and 114 Randolph street, in 1853. Many of the member-
ship were among the first citizens, and the owner of the hall, M. C.
Sterns, desiring to encourage the enterprise, gave the members the free
448 CHICAGO AND IT« DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
use of the premises for six months. In the Summer of 1854, Professor
H. G. Ottignon, of New York, was engaged as instructor in this institu-
tion. He arrived in Chicago June iSth, 1854, and immediately set to work
organizing his classes. The success of the institution was unmistakable,
but it lasted only about a month, when the cholera visited the place, and
sadly interfered with it. The weather, too, was so excessively hot — the
thermometer ranging even as high as one hundred and four degrees — that
it was almost impossible to enter upon any physical training. Cholera
and the weather succeeded in reducing the membership of the gymnasium
to twelve persons, and by August the funds were exhausted. But an
arrangement was made during this month by which Professor Ottignon
became the proprietor, and the institution was known as Ottignon's Gym-
nasium. It continued in existence until 1860.
In 1858 the Olympic Gymnasium was established. It was located at
28 Market street. At its organization it had the following membership:
K. R. Olmsted, President; David M. Ford, Treasurer and Secretary; W.
L. Gray, Jacob Clingman, John M. Clark, Western Bascomb, Charles
F. O'Brien, H. P. Gray, J. H. Welbeck, William A. White, Martin E.
Ford, George M. Phelps, W. A. Hendrie, Samuel Davis, James H. Logan,
and R. B. Clark.
While the institution began life with nattering prospects, and was
successful for a time, unavoidable circumstances combined to make its life
a short one. Emigration to Pike's Peak had commenced, and among
those who sought that much lauded elevation, were many of the Olympic
members, and on July nth, 1859, the gymnasium died. An event in
which the lamented Colonel Elsworth figured is of sufficient interest for
record in connection with this institution. Elsworth and Kingsley R.
Olmsted engaged in a contest with foils, during which the former was
disarmed, and his foil sent by his antagonist scaling along the ceiling,
seemingly touching it all the way, a distance of forty-five feet, when it
dropped almost at a right angle to the floor. It was one of the most
artistic feats ever performed in any gymnasium.
In June, 1860, the Metropolitan Gymnasium opened, directly opposite
Irving Hall, and was one of the finest gymnasiums in the country. It
was conceived and managed by Curtis & Babcock, who were handsomely
supported by the public, whose interest was evidenced by the fact that on
the opening night an audience of fifteen hundred was in attendance. Mr.
Babcock finally withdrew from the management, and W. H. Thompson
succeeded him, but for some reason the enterprise was not prosperous
under the new management, and it was at last abandoned. It was, how-
ever, soon after secured by Professor Ottignon, and reopened by him
April ist, 1861. June ist, 1863, it again closed.
In the Fall of 1863 Quitra & Blake leased the apparatus and opened
a gymnasium in a wooden building on Madison street between Clark and
LaSalle streets, for a number of years used by and called Trinity Episcopal
Church. This gymnasium ran nearly six months, when it was given up.
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 449
Professor Ottignon was afterward induced by many of his former
patrons to try and open another gymnasium. Accordingly he circulated
a subscription, and quite a number subscribed ten dollars a year. The
next thing to be done was to find a suitable place. This he finally found
in Benjamin Lombard's building, which fronted on Monroe street, and ran
back some two hundred feet. In the rear end of this building were two
halls, forty by seventy feet, with a partition wall between them. Mr. Lom-
bard would not rent one without the other, and both were hired. Mr.
Ottignon had in the meantime bought the apparatus used in the last
mentioned place, and opened his gymnasium November i6th, 1865. This
gymnasium closed July ist, 1866. The next gymnasium was started by
the Young Men's Association, and was opened at Kinzie Hall, on the
North Side, on Kinzie street. Louis Kormandy was instructor; they
occupied these quarters one Winter. Then they leased the two upper
stories of a building standing where now stands Burke's Hotel, and ran
their gymnasium until the first fire at Farwell Hall.
The next gymnasium was started by Louis Kormandy, in the Fall
of 1869, in Boone Block, near the corner of Madison and LaSalle streets.
The following Winter Mr. Kormandy leased the rear hall in the building
known as the Metropolitan Block, on the northwest corner of Randolph
and LaSalle streets. This gymnasium was run up to the time of the
great fire in 1871. In the Fall of 1872', however, the same gentleman
opened another gymnasium on the South Side, on Indiana avenue, near
Twenty-fifth street. He was succeeded at this place by the Athenaeum
Gymnasium, which was located at this place one Winter, and in the fol-
lowing Summer was moved down town to more suitable quarters,
occupying the four floors of the building in which Race Brothers are now
located, on the south side of Madison street. It was run in this locality
until May ist, 1875, when they removed to 65 East Washington street,
and engaged the second, third and fourth floors. Professor Ottignon was
engaged as instructor for the gymnasium. He took hold of this institution
the first of June, 1875. The membership increased rapidly under his
instruction, and by mid-Winter he could count some four hundred mem-
bers who attended the gymnasium alone. Mr. Ottignon continued in
charge until July 8th, 1876, when the new superintendent, Mr. Furbush,
took the chair, when Charles O. Duplessis succeeded him, and has held the
position ever since. Mr. Duplessis, like Professor Ottignon, is a highly
successful teacher. He was born in Syracuse, New York, of French
parentage, September ijth, l&53- At quite an early age he displayed
and developed a taste for various athletic sports, and his delight was to
compete with his playmates and excel in the various games. His father
being a carpenter contractor, apprenticed him to his own trade, and he
followed it ten years, and has made good use of his mechanical acquire-
ments in the gymnastic line of late years. Not liking a trade as a business,
he turned his attention to gymnastics, hoping some day to follow it for
a profession. He made fair progress considering he had to learn it with-
45?
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
out an instructor or the use of a gymnasium. He first excelled on the
horizontal bar, and made his first appearance before the public in an
entertainment given at Lyons, New York, at the age of sixteen. He came
to Chicago in the Spring of 1871 and became a member of Kormandy's
gymnasium on the sixth of May, and exercised there until the great fire,
which put an end to his practice for a time. In 1873 he was called to
St. Louis, Missouri, on business, and while there he had a membership in
the Missouri gymnasium and took regular exercise.
Not liking that city he returned to Chicago in 1874 and immediately
took exercise in the Christian Union Association Gymnasium — now called
the Athenaeum — 114 East Madison street. He was a participant in two
exhibitions during his term of membership, and continued to take exercise
until he made and put up the apparatus for the Northwestern University
gymnasium, at Evanston, Illinois, February 8th, 1878, upon the completion
of which he was engaged as the curator and instructor, this being his first
employment as a professional instructor. While there he took lessons in
fencing and boxing of K. R. Olmsted, so as to teach them, which he did
to the students of the college. The college term closed the twenty-third of
June and he returned to Chicago and joined K. R. Olmsted's gymnasium.
July loth, 1876, he. commenced to renovate the old apparatus at .the
Athenaeum, in which he had accepted the position of instructor, and
improve things generally. Under his management that department
showed a decided increase of patronage from the start. He organized
a team of five picked gymnasts to compete in the tournament given at
Louisville for American gymnasts between Chicago, St. Louis, Cincinnati,
Maysville and Louisville. Gold medals were awarded to individuals who
excelled in their favorite acts. The Chicago team returned satisfied with
the number of prizes won, and the team as a whole made a very good
impression on the fraternity.
January loth, 1880, he procured a patent on his invention called the
Duplessis Combination Portable Gymnasium, which combines all the ap-
paratus required to develop all the muscles of the weak or strong without
any possible way of straining the muscles; in fact, it is a gymnasium con-
densed into a space two feet square by seven feet high, and is really
ornamental, making a very handsome article of furniture. He has manu-
factured the apparatus for the following institutions: Omaha gymnasium,
Omaha, Nebraska; Northwestern University gymnasium, Evanston,
Illinois; News Boys' Home gymnasium, Chicago; Athenaeum gymnasium,
Chicago; Young Men's Christian Association gymnasium, Chicago; Chi-
cago University gymnasium, Chicago, and Shattuck School gymnasium,
Faribault, Minnesota.
After occupying the building at 65 Washington street some two vears,
the new building situated at 50 Dearborn street was leased and fitted up by
the Athenasum for a gymnasium.
Olmsted and Son's gymnasium was opened on the first day of May,
1876, on the corner of Washington and Halsted streets. It was fitted up
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 4^1
as complete as any gymnasium ever started in the West, but it was short
lived, having had an existence of just six months.
Professor Ottignon, whose name occurs so frequently in this chapter,
really may be regarded as the foundation of the present Athenaeum gym-
nasium, as through his persistent efforts gymnastics were developed until
they crystalized in this institution. He also had a brother, recently
deceased, who was a celebrated gymnast, known to the fraternity through-
out the world.
45-
CHAPTER XXXV.
CHICAGO HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
The Reverend William Barry was the prime mover in the formation
of this society, which was organized June 9th, 1856, by the election of the
following officers: President, William H. Brown; Vice Presidents, William
B. Ogden, Jonathan Young Scammon; Treasurer, S. D. Ward; Secretary „
William Barry. In 1863, to which time Mr. Brown held the office
of president uninterruptedly from its organization, Walter L. Newberry
became president, and held the office until his death, in 1868, when Edwin
H. Sheldon was elected. In 1876 Mr. Sheldon was succeeded by Isaac
H. Arnold, who has occupied the position ever since. Mr. Barry resigned
the office of secretary in 1869, and was followed by T. M. Armstrong,
who was succeeded by J. W. Hoyt, and he was followed by William
Corkran, who held the position at the time of the great fire. B. F.
Culver was afterward elected, and he was succeeded by the present efficient
secretary and librarian, Albert D. Hager.
The following charter was granted by the legislature February yth>
i357:
WHEREAS, It is conducive to the public good of a State, to encourage
such institutions as have for their object to collect and preserve the memo-
rials of its founders and benefactors, as well as the historical evidences
of its progress in settlement and population, and in the arts, improvements
and institutions which distinguish a civilized community, and to transmit
the same for the instruction and benefit of future generations:
SECTION i. BE IT ENACTED BY THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OP
ILLINOIS, REPRESENTED IN THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY, That William H»
Brown, William B. Ogden, J. Young Scammon, Mason Brayman, Mark
Skinner, Geo. Manierre, John H. Kinzie, J. V. Z. Blaney, E. I. Tinkham
J. D. Webster, W. A. Smallwood, V. H. Higgins, N. S. Davis, Charles
H. Ray, S. D. Ward, M. D. Ogden, F. Scammon, E. B. McCagg and
William Barry, all of the city of Chicago, who have associated for the
purposes aforesaid, be and are hereby formed into and constituted a body
politic and corporate, by the name of the Chicago Historical Society, and
that they and their successors, and such others as shall be legally elected
by them as their associates, shall be and continue a body politic and cor-
porate, by that name, forever.
SECTION 2. Said society shall have power to elect a president, and all
necessary officers, and shall have one common seal, and the same may
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 453
break, change and renew at pleasure; and, as a body politic and corporate,
I v the name aforesaid, may sue and be sued, and prosecute and defend
suits, both in law and equity, to final judgment and execution.
SECTION 3. The said society shall have power to make all orders and
by-laws for governing its members and property, not repugnant to the
laws of this State; and may expel, disfranchise, or suspend any member,
who, by his misconduct, shall be rendered unworthy, or who shall neglect
or refuse to observe the rules and by-laws of the society.
SECTION 4. The said society may, from time to time, establish rules
for electing officers and members, and also times and places for holding
meetings; and is hereby empowered to take and hold real or personal estate,
by gift, grant, devise, or purchase, or otherwise, and the same, or any
part thereof, to alien and convey.
SECTION 5. The said society shall have power to elect corresponding
and honorary members thereof, in the various parts of this State, and
of the several United States, and also in foreign countries, at their discre-
tion: Provided, however, that the number of resident members of said
society shall never exceed sixty; and William H. Brown, or any other
person named in this act, is hereby authorized and empowered to notify
and call together the first meeting of said society; and the same society,
when met, shall agree upon a method for calling further meetings, and
may have power to adjourn from time to time, as may be found necessary.
SECTION 6. Members of the legislature of this State, in either branch,
and judges of the Supreme Court, and officers of State, shall and may
have free access to said society's library and cabinet.
SECTION 7. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after its
passage.
The following amendatory act was passed by the legislature and
approved by the Governor January 3Oth, 1867:
SECTION i. BE IT ENACTED BY THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF
ILLINOIS, REPRESENTED IN THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY, That section five
of the act, to which this is an amendment, be so amended that said
society shall have power to increase the number of its resident members,
from time to time, to any number that shall by it be deemed expedient.
SECTION 2. The said society shall have power to borrow money and
mortgage its real estate to secure the same, to an amount not exceeding
twenty thousand dollars, to be used in completing and paying for the
buildings now in process of erection on the real estate of said society.
And the real estate and property of said society shall be exempt from
taxation.
SECTION 3. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after
its passage.
The society at first occupied quarters at the corner of North Wells
and Kinzie streets, but removed in 1868 to the corner of Dearborn avenue
and Ontario street. This building, which together with the land cost the
society sixty thousand dollars, was entirely destroyed in the great fire.
454
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
After this calamity the society received a large number of valuable books
from the generous and public spirited in various parts of the world, but
the society seemed fated, and in the fire of 1874 its new collection was
also destroyed. This misfortune resulted in an apathy on the part of the
society for some time, but in the Spring of 1877 D. M. Mitchell furnished
gratuitously a room in Ashland Block, and to this the society removed
what few books and documents it had gathered together after its second
baptism of fire.
The following bequests to the society have been made: by Henry
D. Gilpin, of Philadelphia, an amount, which with its accumulations, now
amounts to nearly fifty thousand dollars; by Lucretia Pond, of Petersham,
Massachusetts, eight valuable lots on the southwest corner of Superior
and Market streets, and a fine collection of books, maps and paintings.
In January, 1877, the society made a move looking to the erection
of a building. A committee was appointed to raise funds for that pur-
pose, and the new building was completed and occupied October i6th, 1877.
The following are the present officers of the society: President, Isaac
N. Arnold; Vice Presidents, Thomas Hoyne, William Hickling; Secre-
tary and Librarian, Albert D. Hager; Treasurer, Henry H. Nash;
Executive Committee, Isaac N. Arnold, Ex officio, George F. Rumsey,
Levi Z. Leiter, Mark Skinner, Edward G. Mason, George L. Dunlap,
William Hickling, E. H. Sheldon, W. K. Ackerman; Trustees of Gilpin
fund, Isaac N. Arnold, Thomas Hoyne, Ex officio, E. H. Sheldon, George
F. Rumsey, A. H. Burley; Trustees of Pond estate, E. H. Sheldon,
William Hickling, Mark Skinner.
455
CHAPTER XXXVI.
THE DRY GOODS TRADE.
The history of the dry goods trade in Chicago has been gathered
from facts furnished by T. B. Carter and John V. Farwell at a reception
given to the gentlemen connected with the trade by the Young Men's
Christian Association, on the evening of December 3Oth, iSSo. Mr.
Carter stated that the first retailers in dry goods that there is any mention
of, were G. S. Hulbei t, and a Frenchman named Cerais, who was attached
to the American Fur Company, and who established himself in Chicago
over one hundred years ago, somewhere about 1750. To him belongs the
honor of selling the first calico dress, blankets and shawls. They were
disposed of, of course, to the aboriginal ladies in Chicago, who were pos-
sibly some less fastidious in their tastes than the Chicago ladies of to-day.
The line of succession in the dry goods trade from that time to the present
cannot be traced with certainty, but in 1816 one John Crafts was sent
here as an agent for a Detroit firm, and began the sale of goods to the
swarthy residents. His line of trade was in blankets, beads, shawls, etc.,
which, of course, he put in a large supply of to meet the holiday demand.
After this time dry goods were sold here by the sutlers of the army, and
they continued the sole merchants of the place as long as the military
post remained. John S. C. Hagar, a sutler, came here in 1828, and in
1830 he was succeeded by G. W. Dole. After this, in 1830, T. W. Peck
established a dry goods store here, bringing on from the East a very large
stock of goods in 1831. He opened at the corner of LaSalle and Water
streets. He continued in trade until 1838, when he sold out to enter into
the real estate business.
Messrs. Kimball & Porter opened on Water street about this time,
and soon afterward came R. King, J. H. Woodworth and others; all
opened on Water street, which was the fashionable street of the place
at the time. In rainy weather the streets were very muddy, and it was
not an uncommon sight to see women driven to the stores in two-wheeled
carts, which were backed up to the street doors that they might safely
alight free of the mud.
Of the dry goods business of the present Mr. Farwell said: "The
dry goods trade of Chicago, when compared with that of forty years ago,
almost compels me to say that the pictures are inconsistent with each
other, and that therefore one or both are incorrectly drawn, especially
if the observer should not be acquainted with the great country back
456 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
of us, that has made Chicago what it now is. That a city of forty years
should grow from nothing into such magnificent proportions in that time,
and out of the ashes of two annihilating fires, may well challenge the
admiration of the world, for nowhere, in no time, has there ever been its
counterpart in rapid, substantial growth.
And here let me say that I think altogether too much credit for such
result has been given to the men who manned her business interests.
They are entitled, however, to full credit for seizing upon possibilities
which our magnificent Northwestern country presented for development)
and utilizing the favorable location we have for a grand commercial
center just as rapidly as their means would permit; but broad acres in
every direction, stirred into life by the all-pervading locomotive engine,
are the real corner-stones of our rapid growth and the only foundation
for a permanent upbuilding of great and prosperous cities. And yet,
strange as it may seem, some of the leading dry goods merchants of thirty
years ago were opposed to railroads, when the first one was projected,
and by the prodigious efforts of a few men, built as far as Elgin. The
streets of Chicago at times were literally blockaded with wheat teams,
coming from two hundred miles in every direction, and these traders
furnished calico dresses for those farmers, provided their wheat sold for
enough to indulge in extravagance. Such merchants could not afford to
lose that trade by building railroads. It is needless to say that they soon
retired from business, under threatened devastations from railroad connec-
tions with the country.
One facetious member of the legislature suggested an improvement
on wagon transportation to save them from such a disaster, viz. : that
they petition the General Assembly to make a law requiring farmers to
market their wheat in two-bushel baskets, with Chicago as the only port
of entry. Having been one of those farmers, and having hauled wheat
one hundred miles to reach Chicago, and then having aided E. J. Wads-
worth, the purchaser, to elevate it with a wheel-and-rope elevator into the
second story of his warehouse for forty-five cents per bushel, all told,
•I was practically prepared to enjoy the joke, particularly as I had to take
calico for twenty cents per yard in part payment for the wheat. It is also
needless to say that I was a strong railroad man mentally, but capital
objections interfered, and so I drifted into a dry goods clerkship at eight
dollars per month, and that, I suppose, is the reason I have been requested
to say something to you about the dry goods business of our city at this
time.
It is said by some that 'the tailor makes the man and the dressmaker
the woman.' It is very clear that in such manufactures, dry goods are by
far the most important raw materials, though it must be admitted at the
same time to be a great waste of it at both of these shops, and still, walk-
ing dry goods advertisements have their advantages. The dealer gets pay,
instead of paying for them. While it may be true that vaulting ambition
sometimes o'erleaps itself in such use of dry goods, it is also true that
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 457
the well-draped gentleman and lady of to-day have had their dignity
and gentility intensified hy a judicious blending of dry goods, tailors and
dressmakers, in the assured satisfaction that, as decoration and protection
combined, their attire is a vast improvement over the fig leaves and coats
of skins in which Adam and Eve held their receptions. Some one has
also said, with a great deal of truth, that the dress of its citizens would
indicate the position that any nation occupied in the scale of education
and other social advantages. All other things being equal, then, the dry
goods, made and put on, indicate latitude and longitude on the map of the
world's progress.
A healthy Englishman, with good gastronomical abilities, would
name beefsteak as the mighty lever that moves the v, odd, and at the same
time eat so much mutton as to be entirely ashamed to look a sheep in the
face, but who else would think of measuring a man by the kind or amount
of his dinners? It is only when one gets beyond physical want, and puts
himself inside of a good coat, that he feels the declaration of independence
all through him, and begins to expand into the full stature of a man.
The fine arts in dry goods and dress, in any city, are a big sign, in gold
letters, that all other fine arts worth naming are found just around the
corner. Who expects to see a miser, or any of his selfish first cousins,
arrayed in purple and fine linen, a sluggard or an epicure done up in the
latest style of fashion? Or who is there that does not expect the minister
and his flock to show first-class signs of their civilization and piety in the
cut and quality of their outer- man accoutrements?
So inflexible is this rule that even the little children, to say nothing
of children of a larger growth, cannot be drawn into a church or a Sunday
school now-a-days unless they are well put up in dry goods. No, not
with a forty-horse power engine. So it is quite evident that there can be
no pious, well-behaved children, or men and women of any age, without
a liberal use of the world's dry goods civil izer. Can you not see in all
these facts the dignity of your calling, and how soon the world would
relapse into barbarism but for your benevolent efforts to furnish all with
the best possible outfit in which to appear in public, and that this is what
has made Chicago famous the world over? What other city could afford
to burn up, en masse, just as an advertisement, and by so doing quadruple
her business in two years? That old cow knew what she was about when
she kicked over the lamp, and made a bonfire of Chicago dry goods.
Full of benevolence, as nil good cows are, she wanted to see more dry
goods sold here, and so she waked up our merchants by wiping them out,
just to give them a chance to demonstrate what they could do. Having
done it, I think they should erect a monument to that bovine queen
of merchants in memory of what the fire did for us all. St. Louis looked
on with a bloated census, feeling that rivers would yet make better time
than railroads, and with a pen dipped in that fire, wrote our epitaph.
A Chicago man happening to be there the next morning after the fire,
he hurried to the depot to take the train for Chicago, just as it was mov-
458 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
ing out. Cursing his luck with St. Louis manners, the ticket agent
reminded him that there was another train next day. 'Yes, I know that,'
said our friend; 'but they'll have the town built up before I get there,
and I want to see the ruins.'
While other cities have been writing our epitaphs those magnificent
temples of trade occupied by Marshall Field & Company, Carson, Pirie,
Scott & Company, A. T. Stewart & Company, Mandel Brothers, Charles
Gossage & Company, Partridge — who puts Boston in one store occupying
only half of the sidewalk at that — and a host of others too numerous to
mention, sprang up like young giants, and what were thought to be tomb-
stones, marking the site of a defunct city, are the most magnificent living
monuments of human enterprise on this continent, if not in the world.
A. T. Stewart & Company, the pioneers and life-long princes in the dry
goods trade of New York city, have made a graceful bow to Chicago,
and in pitching their tent here have said to the world: 'The Chicago drv
goods trade is to lead the world in the magnitude of its distributions.'
A very few years will demonstrate the far-seeing wisdom of that practical
prediction as to the coming center of trade in this country.
Another most wonderful fact connected with the dry goods trade,
which even Nasby has. never alluded to, is, that after they have gone
forth on their missionary tours, demonstrating science and religion, civiliza-
tion, culture, their last days are spent in making it possible for greenbacks,
bank bills, government bonds, love letters and books to make people
happy. While at the same time, from Democratic and Republican rags, such
magnificent sheets as the Chicago TRIBUNE, TIMES, INTER OCEAN and
JOURNAL, go forth daily, trumpet-tongued, by the millions, to slay more
ignorance in their very death, than in the laces, lawns and shirts of their
former history they had covered up. Did it ever occur to you that the
printing press was indebted to a healthy, vigorous dry goods trade for its
wonderful efficiency in elevating mankind, and that Chicago had the
greatest and most enterprising newspapers in the world?
Having shown you that the Chicago dry goods trade is in so manv
ways useful as well as ornamental, it only remains to supplement this
preamble with a few figures regarding it, showing its remarkable growth.
One of the oldest houses in our city for many years has in single days sold
more goods than in a whole year in 1850.
The amount of capital employed in the trade, including millinery
and fancy goods, at this time is about nineteen million dollars, in the
wholesale and retail branches. Goods sold amount annually to about
ninety million dollars. The number of employes in the wholesale branch
of the business is two thousand; in the retail branch, eight thousand.
The tonnage handled may be approximated, from reliable statistics,
gathered from some of the large shippers, whose average in and out
freight during the busy season reaches two hundred and fifty tons per
day, averages nearly one hundred tons for three hundred days of the year,
making twenty-five car loads daily for a part, and an average of ten cars daily
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 459
for the whole year. To handle this enormous amount of freight requires
in the houses that do it five or six steam elevators, and from sixty to one
hundred truck horses each in the wholesale branches of the business.
Marshall Field and some others now in the trade, who used to help
man rope elevators and load a few one-horse drays, early in the morning,
to clear the docks\ for a new day's work, never dreamed that they were
so soon to be cheated out of this healthy exercise by the encroachment
of steam power. Nevertheless, they seem to survive the change, and
would be quite complacent over it if the railroads would increase their
facilities for shipping in Chicago as rapidly as they are extending their lines
into the country. Their shipping facilities of to-day are comparatively
the one-horse dray and the rope elevator. For ten years no enlargement
has occurred commensurate with the increase of business, and the conse-
quence is that every day merchants are actually losing thousands of dollars
from detention of trucks at railroad depots waiting their regular turn to
unload. New lines of road entering Chicago which have comprehended
and provided a remedy for this evil, have jumped into a large freight
business at once, without any other solicitor than the disposition to abate
the detention nuisance.
If passenger depots were delayed a few years-^-if necessary — -to give
places to commodious freight accommodations, it would save a vast
amount of money and profanity that must necessarily (?) be expended t>y
pious merchants upon this crying evil. We are only reminding railroad
men of one thing they have been obliged to neglect in the multitude of
their pressing cares, feeling sure that a hint only is necessary for men
who have, by their foresight and energy in extending their lines of road,
made it possible for our merchants to smother them temporarily in a deluge
of merchandise. When they get fairly out from under this avalanche
of their own making, they will, of course, get ready to receive the next
one without embarrassment to themselves or their patrons.
When salesmen sold goods by day, billed and packed them at night,
and helped to load those one-horse drays before breakfast the next morn-
ing with the result of the previous day's work, that one-horse railroad
to Elgin could manage to swallow all that came very comfortably. But
the salesmen of to-day are, like railroad men, busy and aristocratic, having
no time to handle boxes, make out bills and swear at freight agents.
They are expected to handle men only, and measure swords with each
other to see which can sell the cheapest and make the most money, and
thus make railroads profitable. As they all succeed, the evidence is con-
clusive that none but the ablest talents can enter that fraternity, and indeed
they are a splendid class of full-grown men. Being obliged to make
a study of human character, they become adepts in analyzing that harp
of a thousand strings, and tuning it to suit their own music, and there
would not be much music in any house if its principals in management
did not graduate from this brotherhood.
And now let us all take off our hats to the great Northwest, which has
460 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
furnished the motive power to make the Chicago dry goods trade what
it is, and while we have given our best ability in the past to meet the
wants of our patrons, let us not rest content until every possibility in that
direction has been developed to its utmost, and we then need have no
fear from any rivals in any point of the compass, in our future efforts
to make Chicago one of the largest distributing points in the known
world."
Of course Mr. Farwell's modesty did not allow him to refer to his
own great establishment. The dry goods house of J. V. Farwell & Com-
pany is one of the best known in the country, and is the harvest of great
ability judiciously directed and uncompromising honor. The magnificent
building occupied by the firm, at the corner of Monroe and Market
streets, is one of the most elegant and commodious structures in Chicago.
John V. has been ably assisted in building up the enormous business
of the Farwells by his brother, Charles B., a representative in the Congress
of the United States.
461
CHARLES FOLLANSBEE.
The subject of the following sketch is another of the few remaining
pioneers who stood by the cradle of this present great city, and whose
enterprise and personal character laid the firm foundation upon which
they and others have builded so grandly. No more substantial and
beautiful monument to courage, ability and achievements will ever be
erected than these men have built to commemorate their own, upon the
spot on which they have converted rudeness into artistic elegance and
poverty into commercial greatness and wealth. Amidst the constantly
increasing bustle of the busy humanity which has gathered and is gather-
ing here, and the effacement of old land marks which rapid development
demands, the voices of the substantial fathers of the city will always
echo, and their early footprints will always be visible. Posterity has
never had a sublimer example of human conduct or greater encourage-
ment in human effort than -is furnished in the history of those whose
early sacrifices in pioneer life were the germ from which has sprung one
of the most important communities in the world. With the biographies
of these men in his hands, the young man of to-day can readily learn
the secret of life's success, which he will find to be moral courage, indus-
try, honesty and integrity. With this capital the early settlers of Chicago
embarked in the work of establishing civilization here, and the harvest
of these virtues is the magnificent reality which presents itself in beauti-
ful Chicago, and in the exalted esteem in which our pioneers are held.
Nor do any of our old settlers merit more consideration than he whose
life we shall here sketch, and which has been distinguished for its
exceptional purity, uprightness, vigor and enterprise. With his New
England training, a stout heart and willing hands, he came to the frontier,
and quietly but persistently applied himself to the discharge of duty, and
while aiding to build up the city, established for himself an enviable
reputation and accumulated a competence. Striving through life to thor-
oughly do whatever he undertook, his life presents an unusual completeness,
and the city oi his adoption is reaping the benefits of his fidelity and
industry.
Charles Follansbee was born in Paxton, Worcester county, Massa-
chusetts, October i4th, 1810, and is the son of Ebenezer Follansbee and
Clarissa Taft. The father was a scythe manufacturer, and carried on
an extensive business at Milbry, Massachusetts, for many years, having
462 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
served his apprenticeship with Colonel Paul Whitin, of Northbridge.
His father was Thomas F. Follansbee, a sea captain, and his mother Ann
Choate, of Boston. Clarissa Taft, the mother of our subject, was the
daughter of Israel Taft, and of one of the oldest families in Northbridge.
In 1820 the family removed to Watertown, New York, where the elder
Follansbee erected a large factory and continued his old business. Young
Follansbee spent his childhood and early manhood at home, securing a
good common school education, and learning the trade of his father, in
whose establishment he worked until he was twenty-five years of age^
when the spirit of enterprise led him to seek a broader field for the exer-
cise of his natural abilities. The West, to his keen foresight, presented
such opportunities as he craved, and he started for Chicago, arriving here
in Mav, 1836. To a less observing and penetrating mind there was
nothing at that lime to suggest even ordinary advantages for success, but
Mr. Follansbee, while probably not even dreaming of what the future
has developed, was satisfied that Chicago had a future of importance, and
that it was a good point for a young man to expend his energies.
Very soon after his arrival he embarked in the dry goods and general
store business, wholesale and retail, on Lake street, which he prosecuted
for fifteen years, when failing health compelled him to retire, and he spent
a year in Europe. Upon his return he devoted himself to the business of
real estate and building, erecting in the city over one hundred buildings,
an achievement which shows how intimately his enterprise has beeu con-
nected with the growth of Chicago. In 1865 he embarked in banking,
under the style of C. Follansbee & Son, and continued in that business
until May, 1877, when on account of failing health, he retired. In all
his business enterprises and intercourse with the world he has been
straightforward and scrupulously honest, and although having passed
through turbulent periods, during which many around him were finan-
cially ruined, it must be a fertile source of pride and comfort to him to
be able to say that he always paid one hundred cents on the dollar.
Mr. Follansbee was married February 5th, 1835, to Sally Merriam
Coburn, daughter of Honorable Merrill Coburn, of Watertown, New
York, and six children have been born unto them, three of whom are
now living: Merrill Coburn, born July 22d, 1838; William Pitt, born
October 29th, 1841 — died February 28th, 1876; Charles Alanson, born
January 29th, 1845 — died January 4th, 1851; Frank Henry, born April
6th, 1850; Charles Ebenezer, born June 24th, 1855, and Marcia Clarissa,
born August 3d, 1859 — died August 6th, 1860.
During his long life Mr. Follansbee has been unpretentious in man-
ner, but has in the midst of his marked success prominently shown those
traits of character which endear men to their friends and neighbors —
modesty, fidelity to friendships, and consideration of the feelings and
rights of others. In his private life he has been exemplary, and as he
looks back upon his useful career, and considers the esteem in which he is
held, his life must appear eminently satisfactory to him.
463
POTTER PALMER.
Potter Palmer, the first merchant prince of Chicago, is a native of
Albany county, New York. His grandparents moved thither at an early
day from New Bedford, Massachusetts. They were Quakers, as were
most of the families of that once important seaport town. During the
Revolutionary War, it was sacked by the British, the ancestors of Mr.
Palmer being among the sufferers. One of his grandfathers was a mere
lad at the time. The other grandfather, although only fifteen years of
age, enlisted in the army of Independence, and served with honor until
he received a wound that made him a cripple for life.
His father, Benjamin Palmer, was an extensive farmer. He died in
1859, being in the sixty-eighth year of his age. His mother, whose
maiden name was Rebecca Potter, was born in 179.^. Both parents were
members of the Society of Friends, and to their wise and gentle, yet firm
training, Mr. Palmer is accustomed to attribute his success in life. More
austere than the present standard of parental discipline requires, they
taught him, from early boyhood, the preciousness of time, and when not
at school he was expected to be at work. The habit of industry thus
formed he has always adhered to, and it has enabled him, in after life, to
conduct an extensive and complicated business requiring an incredible
amount of labor.
At the age of eighteen, he was permitted to choose his occupation
for life, and having long cherished a preference for mercantile pursuits,
he» engaged in the store of the Honorable Piatt Adams, in Durham,
Greene county, New York, as a clerk, his employer being both banker
and merchant. With him he remained three years, being, the third year,
intrusted with the entire management of the concern, and conducting it
to the entire satisfaction of his employer.
Arriving at his majority, he resolved to be his own master in the full
sense of the term, and accordingly opened a store at Oneida, New York.
He remained in business there only two years and a half. Oneida was a
thrifty country village, but to a young man of Mr. Palmer's large ideas
and rare commercial talent it offered no adequate inducements for perma-
nent settlement. He removed to Lockport, a much larger place, but
continued there only one year. Believing that he possessed a talent to
manage a larger business than it was possible to do here, he removed
to Chicago, and opened a dry goods store. Beginning, at first, on a
464 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
moderate scale, his trade rapidly and steadily increased until, after at,
experience of thirteen years, the name of Potter Palmer became familiar
to the entire trading community of the West.
Mr. Palmer always had a true appreciation of the commercial facili-
ties of Chicago, and did not hesitate to incur the risk demanded. The
rise in goods soon after the beginning of the war found him with a full
stock on hand; and here again, his far-seeing judgment enabled him to
take, at its ebb, the tide that led on to greater fortune, and, from the
beginning of the war, he continued to carry immense amounts of goods,
both here and in New York, reaping large gains from every advance,
knowing as well when to sell as when to buy.
During the war Mr. Palmer was unwavering and practical in his
loyalty. He rendered himself specially serviceable to the government
by loaning it large amounts of money, undeterred by apprehension of
failure or repudiation; and at the close of the war the government was
in his debt to the extent of over three-quarters of a million of dollars.
After retiring from mercantile pursuits, Mr. Palmer invested largelv
in real estate in Chicago, and has not been content simply to make judi-
cious investments and then wait for the irresistible and rapid growth of
the city to enhance the value of his property, but has expended large
amounts in improvements.
By reason of the great fire, Mr. Palmer's losses were immense.
Many beautiful and valuable buildings were destroyed, among which
was the magnificent store on the northeast cornei of State and Washing-
ton streets, six stories in height. This was acknowledged to have been
the finest building devoted to purposes of trade, to be found in the United
States. Although so great a loser by the calamity, Mr. Palmer would not
yield to discouragement, but set to work to repair his misfortunes.
Numerous large buildings, ornate and elegant, now grace the rebuilt city,
and owe their origin to the enterprise and ability of Mr. Palmer. The
most prominent of the buildings erected by him since the fire, is the Palmer
House. This magnificent hotel, in the elegance of its design and finish
and its complete and costly appointments excels any similar building in
the United States.
Mr. Palmer entertains a just pride in Chicago, and has spared no
pains nor effort to render it the first city of the continent in the beauty
of its streets, and the uniform magnificence of its buildings.
The great secret of Mr. Palmer's success is to be attributed in part,
to his excellent judgment and tireless energy, but more to the fact that
he has always been strictly honest and upright in his dealings. None
of his large fortune has been accumulated at the expense of others; or
the contrary, many are largely indebted to him for their present pro.s
perity, while the city in which he accumulated his wealth, as in the past,
will in the future be greatly benefited and adorned by the prolific expend-
iture of the large capital that a munificent providence has placed at his
disposal.
JOHN V. FARWELL.
John V. Farwell is the son of Henry and Nancy Farwell, who at
the time of his birth, July 29th, 1825, lived upon a farm in Steuben
county, New York.
John V. was the third of four brothers, and in common with them,
spent his Summers in farm work and his Winters in the district school.
Thus both body and mind were educated until his thirteenth year. The
foundation of enduring- health was laid, and the essentials of a good edu-
cation acquired. He gave evidence, even at this early age, of that capacity
for achievement for which he has since become distinguished. He was
the projector and the prime worker in the erection of the first brick
house in the county, and in similar enterprises showed the energy he
possessed.
The family removed to Ogle county, Illinois, in 1838, where their
hardships multiplied. They now began frontier life of the most toilsome
and wearisome description, as the country was new, and the farm an
unbroken prairie.
When sixteen years of age, young Farwell entered Mt. Morris
Seminary, and there completed his education. He was poor in this
world's goods, but rich in those qualities and faculties which render
worldly possessions easy of acquisition. While there he received the
appointment of editor of the seminary paper.
It was while attending the seminary that young Farwell decided to
make a place for himself in the world. He mastered the practical and
elementary branches with a view to a life of business, and a will bent
upon excelling in it. He learned book-keeping and taught it. He was
expert in figures and ready with the pencil, whether in mathematics or
composition. He was blessed with considerable versatility of genius,
and made it a point so to equip himself as to be equal to whatever might
occur in the way of employment when he should make his appearance
upon the stage of affairs.
At fourteen years of age he became a member of the Methodist
Episcopal Church. He had thoughts of doing good as well as getting
gain, and already was planning the benevolent uses to which he would
devote his future wealth.
In the Spring of 1845, he came to Chicago with but three dollars
and seventy-five cents in his pocket, working his passage upon a load of
466 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
wheat. The road was a canal of mud, and driver and passenger fre-
quently had to put their shoulders to the wheel, or their hands to the
lever. They accomplished their ninety-five miles in four days. Reaching
Chicago, young Farwell obtained employment in the County Clerk's
office, at tw*elve dollars a month. He reported the proceedings of the
Common Council at two dollars per report. However, having a keen
sense of the ridiculous, he gave offense by reporting too graphically the
proceedings of the City Fathers, whose feelings of dignity interfered,
and the young man was deposed from his office.
Previously to this, Mr. Farwell had engaged himself as book-keeper
in the dry goods establishment of Messrs. Hamilton & White, at eight
dollars a month, for one year, at the end of which time he was offered
better wages and better prospects by the house of Messrs. Hamlin & Day,
which he accepted. From there he entered the employ of Messrs. Wads-
worth & Phelps, dry goods merchants, where his wages were six hundred
dollars a year.
Small as his first year's salary was, Mr. Farwell gave one half of it
to the church of which he was a member. He had a high motive in
wanting to be rich. His benevolence and acquisitiveness united in eleva-
ting him to a great ambition.
His aptness for business was soon apparent. He had skill in trading,
in managing and in planning, and energy adequate to the carrying out
of his plans. Besides this, he was one of the few who realized the
possibilities of the Noi'thwest, and foresaw the destiny of Chicago. In
1851, he became a partner in the firm he had served as salesman. His
hand was felt upon the helm immediately, and his word had weight in
the councils of the concern.
In 1856, through Mr. Farwell's persistency, a wholesale mart on
Wabash avenue was built. The undertaking was stoutly opposed by the
oldest member of the firm at that time. The enterprise, however, proved
successful, and Mr. Farwell increased in philanthrophy as he increased
in means for exercising it. A desire to benefit humanity became the
object of his alert solicitude and unremitting liberality.
In 1856, he started the Illinois Street Mission. It was designed
especially to reach saloon boys, but it rapidly grew into proportions that
embraced all classes of outcast children, and from feeble beginnings it
' O O
expanded into a large church and Sunday school. For ten years Mr.
Farwell was the superintendent of the Mission.
During our civil war, Mr. Farwell's Christian philanthrophy and
patriotic zeal were conspicuous and telling. He was one of the prime
movers in raising the Board of Trade Regiment, as well as the forty
thousand dollars which its equipment and shipment cost. In the furnish-
ing of men and money for the national army he was always foremost.
He contributed liberally to the Sanitary Commissions, exerting himself
continually for the support of all who participated in the struggle for the
preservation of the Union.
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 467
In the Young Men's Christian Association Mr. Farwell has always
shown a deep interest, and for its noble work an enthusiastic love. To
him perhaps, more than to any other man, is it indebted for its present
prosperous and promising condition.
468
CHAPTER XXXVII.
TERRIBLE BALLOON CATASTROPHE.
In connection with ballooning, one of the most heartrending disasters
which has ever formed a part of the history of Chicago, happened on
or about July I5th, 1875, to a balloon and its occupants which ascended
from the lake shore. The air ship was under command of Professor
Donaldson, who was under engagement with P. T. Barnum, whose show
was exhibiting here, to make a daily ascension. Donaldson was a man
of considerable experience as an aerial navigator, and this fact seemed
to have largely induced forgetfulness of the fact that beyond a certain
limit, experience is of no more worth in the air than inexperience would
be. The show with which he was connected had been on the lake front
during the entire week, and the unfortunate aeronaut, accompanied by
members of the press and others, had made successful ascensions each day
until the one on which the fatal ascension was made, but they were
entirely uneventful. The previous evening the morning papers had sent
representatives with Professor Donaldson in his flight through the air, and
on Thursday, July fifteenth, it was arranged for the representatives of the
evening papers to accompany the aeronaut. Unfortunately the weather
was very threatening, and the wind was in a direction to carry the balloon
directly over the lake. It seemed to the vast multitude who witnessed
the ascension, foolhardy in the extreme for Professor Donaldson to venture
up under such circumstances, but his apparent confidence inspired confi-
dence in those who were to accompany him, and who were not supposed
to possess the knowledge concerning such matters that Donaldson ought to
have possessed. The time came for the departure of the balloon. Newton
S. Grimwood, a reporter on the Chicago EVENING JOURNAL, and Mr.
Maitland, of the EVENING POST, were in the basket with the Professor.
For some reason it was found desirable to leave one of the passengers
behind, and Mr. Grimwood and Mr. Maitland drew lots to decide
which should be the lucky or unlucky man, the unlucky one, as events
proved, being the former. With Mr. Grimwood in the basket and
Professor Donaldson in the rigging, the weights were detached and the
great air ship
"Spurning with her foot the ground,
With an exultant, joyous bound
She leaped"
off into space. Mr. Grimwood was observed waving his hat with sur-
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 469
prising coolness, while the balloon took a northeasterly course over the
lake. On the morning of the sixteenth, the papers were eagerly scanned
in order to learn the destiny of the daring voyagers; but nothing had
been heard from them. It was supposed that they had come down in
some out-of-the-way place, where communication could not readily be had
by telegraph. With considerable anxiety the public waited for the
appearance of the evening journals, but they contained little that was
definite or satisfactory. The only actual intelligence which they conveyed
was that the schooner, Little Guide, which had arrived here in the morn-
ing, reported seeing the balloon about thirty or forty miles off Grose
Point, which is about twelve miles from Chicago. The wind was then
carrying the balloon toward Muskegon, a distance of about one hundred
and twenty miles. When first seen by the Little Guide, the air ship was
skimming along close to the surface of the water; suddenly it rose to
quite an altitude, but soon afterward settled down close to the water, and
did not rise again while in sight of those aboard the schooner. The
schooner attempted to render assistance, but the balloon was going so
much faster than the schooner could sail that the project had to be
abandoned.
People now began to conjecture, and balloons began to be seen!
Perhaps the landing had been made in the wooded districts of Michigan,
in which case it might be days before any tidings could come from the
aeronauts, even indeed if they did not perish from hunger before they could
reach civilization. Everybody outside of Chicago seemed fx> be able to
see a balloon every time they looked into the air, and the consequence
was that hope was kindled by such groundless reports, even days after
it was absolutely certain that the balloon could not sustain itself in the air.
The excitement now began- to run high. On the street, in the
counting rooms, offices and houses of the city, the absent men were
the subject of earnest conversation. The more thoughtful even thus
early began to believe that poor Donaldson and Grimwood would never
come back to tell their experiences while sailing through the clouds and
fearful storm. The proprietors of the EvENiNg JOURNAL, Mr. Barnum,
and all who were more intimately connected with either of the men, were
eagerly sought for, as if they could possibly know more than others.
The JOURNAL early feared the worst, and took occasion to say, what the
public well knew before, that the editors did not direct Mr. Grimwood
to accompany Donaldson, but that they consented in deference to his
wishes to do so.
The daily journals on the third day bore at the head of their columns
referring to the matter, the ominous words, "No News;" and the JOURNAL
added: "Probability that Donaldson and Grimwood Will Never Return."
Now came the period of accusation. It was alleged that the balloon was
not safe, and should never have been used for the ascension; and the
managers of the Barnum Hippodrome were severely censured for allow-
ing the ascension to be made. These allegations, however, were probably
470 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
groundless, and were the natural outgrowth of a prevalent feeling under
such circumstances that somebody should be blamed. The blame, if any
was merited, belonged to Professor Donaldson himself, who should have
been less daring.
On the fourth day hope was very generally dispelled. The JOURNAL
said: "The last lingering hope to which the friends of Donaldson and
Grimwood have clung so earnestly, despite the stern facts which almost
forbade hope, has died away, and the two must no^v be given up for lost.
For four days we have been listening intently to every click of the tele-
graph, anxiously inquiring of every incoming vessel, assiduously hunting
down every rumor, no matter how idle, and tenaciously cherishing every
theory of safety and deliverance to them, only to be confronted at last by
the sorrowful reality, which now we fear, must be acknowledged as such,
that they met their death in the terrific hurricane of Thursday night, and
are buried beneath the waters of the lake. Exactly how they met their
doom, it is impossible that we should ever know. How long and desper-
ately they struggled for life, how they cheered each other so long as they
remained together in the basket in which they were borne on their
journey, how they recalled their friends on the land, and regretted that
venturesome spirit which induced them to take their lives in their hands
and go out on such a perilous journey, are all matters of the merest con-
jecture. The balloon, caught in the gale, driven hither and thither like
a desperate creature gone mad, could not have made a long resistance.
When that became useless to them, either by being torn to pieces or being
cut loose by themselves, it left the two men engaged in a fearfully unequal
struggle for life; a hard and valiant struggle no doubt it was against wind
and wave. They could hear only the thunderings of the storm and the
screaming and hissings of the waters; they saw only the vivid flashing
of the lightning and the foaming heads of the waves. The wildness of
such a scene can scarcely be imagined. The struggle could not have
lasted long, the odds were too great." - •
After this no reasonable hope of the safety of the aeronauts could possi-
bly be cherished, and all that could be done was to wait patiently until
something should occur to indicate the manner of their death. Nothing
occurred, however, until the seventeenth of the following August, when
the body of young Grimwood was found on the lake shore near White-
hall, Michigan, by a mail carrier named Alanson Beckwith. When
found the body was flat on its face on a pile of old flood wood. The hair
was nearly all worn off and the face was sadly disfigured. The following
notes were found upon the body, written while in the balloon: "From
the earliest days of childhood, I have always had a presentiment that
sometime, sooner or later, I was bound to rise. There are some people
who make sport of pi'esentiments, but after all a presentiment is a handy
thing to have around. Where would I have been to-day if I had not
had a presentiment? In accordance with my presentiment I have risen as
it were to a 'point of order.' Like a great many politicians I rise by
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 471
means of gas. I regret the fact that there are only two of us — Professor
Donaldson and myself, as I would like to belong to the 'upper ten.'
Professor Donaldson appears to be a very pleasant gentleman, although
a philosopher and aeronaut. Although it is scarcely an hour since I
struggled into eminence, the restraints of my position are already begin-
ning to be irksome to me, and to wear upon my spirits. I cannot help
reflecting that if we fall, we fall like Lucifer, out of the heavens, and that
upon our arrival upon earth, or rather upon water — for we are over the
middle of Lake Michigan — we would be literally dead."
The body of the dead journalist was brought to Chicago, and thence
taken to Joliet, Illinois, where his parents resided. There has seldom
been so deep a feeling manifested among the people as there was over
the loss of these two men.
In this connection, perhaps it would be interesting to review the
history of aerostation. "This art is founded," says Crabbe, "on the prin-
ciple that any body which is specifically lighter than the atmospheric
air will be buoyed up by it and ascend; a principle which had doubtless
long been known, although the application of it to any practical purpose
is altogether a modern invention. It is true that we read of the attempt
which was made by Daedalus and his son Icarus to pass through the air
by means of artificial wings, in which the former is said to have succeeded,
but this is commonly reckoned among the fables of the ancients. Dr.
Black, in his lectures in 1767 and 1768, was the first who, after Mr. Caven-
dish's discovery of the specific gravity of inflammable air, threw out the
suggestion that if a bladder, sufficiently light and thin, were filled with
air, it would form a mass lighter than the same bulk of atmospheric air,
and rise in it. But want of leisure prevented him from trying the experi-
ment, the honor of which belonged to Mr. Cavallo, who communicated
the result to the Royal Society, on the twentieth of June in that year.
After having made several unsuccessful experiments with bladders and
skins, he succeeded at .length in making soap balls, which being inflated
with inflammable air, by dipping the end of a small glass tube, connected
with a bladder containing the air, into a thick solution of soap, and gently
compressing the bladder, ascended rapidly. These were the first sort of
inflammable air balloons that were made. But while philosophers in
Britain were thus engaged in experiments on this subject, two brothers,
in France, Stephen and John Montgolfier, paper manufacturers of Anno-
nay, had made rapid advances toward carrying the project into execution.
Their idea was to form an artificial cloud by enclosing smoke in a fine
silk bag; and having applied burning paper to an aperture at the bottom,
the air thus became rarefied, and the bag ascended to the height of seventy
feet. This experiment was made at Avignon, about the middle of the
year 1782, and was followed by other experiments, all tending to prove
the practicability of the scheme. An immense bag of linen, lined with
paper, and containing upwards of twenty-three thousand cubic feet, was
found to have a power of lifting about five hundred pounds, including its
472 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
own weight. Burning chopped straw and wool under the aperture of
the machine caused it to swell and ascend in the space o£ ten minutes
to the height of six thousand feet; when exhausted, it fell to the ground
at the distance of some thousand feet from the place where it ascended.
In an experiment tried before the Academy of Sciences, a large balloon
was made to lift eight persons from the ground, who would have been
carried away had the machine not been kept down with force. On the
repetition of the experiment before the king at Versailles, with a balloon
near sixty feet high and forty-three in diameter, a sheep, a cock and
a duck, the first animals that ever ascended in a balloon, were carried up
about one thousand four hundred and forty feet, and after remaining in
the air about eight minutes, came to the ground in perfect safety, at the
distance of ten thousand two hundred feet from the place of ascent.
Emboldened by this experiment, M. Pilatre de Rozier offered himself to
be the first aerial adventurer. A new machine was accordingly prepared,
with a gallery and grate, etc., to enable the person ascending to supply
the fire with fuel, and thus keep up the machine as long as he pleased.
On the fifteenth of October, 1783, M. Pilatre took his seat in the gallery,
and, the machine being inflated, he rose to the height of eighty-four feet,
and, after keeping it. afloat about lour minutes and a half, he gently
descended ; he then rose again to the height of two hundred and ten feet,
and the third time two hundred and sixty-two. In the descent, a gust
of wind having blown the machine over some large trees, M. Pilatre
extricated himself by throwing straw and wool on the fire, which raised
him at once to a sufficient height, and in this manner he found himself
able to ascend or descend to a certain height at pleasure. Some time after,
he ascended with M. Girond de Vilette to the height of three hundred
and thirty feet, hovering over Paris at least nine minutes, in sight of all
the inhabitants, and the machine keeping all the while a steady position.
In 1783 he undertook a third aei'ial voyage with the Marquis d'Arlandes,
and in the space of twenty-five minutes went about five miles. In this
voyage they met with several different currents of air, the effect of which
was to give a very sensible shock to the machine. They were also in
danger of having the machine burnt altogether, if the fire had not been
quickly extinguished by means of a sponge. After this period aerostatic
machines were elevated by inflammable air enclosed, instead of fire, with
which Messrs. Roberts and Charles made the first experiment. In this
case the bag was composed of lustring, varnished over with a solution
of elastic gum, called caoutchouc, and was about thirteen English feet
in diameter. After being filled with considerable difficulty, it was found
to be thirty-five pounds lighter than an equal bulk of common air. With
this they ascended, and in three-quarters of an hour traversed fifteen
miles. Their sudden descent was occasioned by a rupture which happened
to the machine when it was at its greatest height. On a subseauent day
the same gentlemen made an ascent in a balloon filled with inflammable
air. This machine was formed of gores of silk, covered with a varnish
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 473
of caoutchouc, of a spherical figure, and measuring twenty-seven feet six
inches in diameter. A net was spread over the upper hemisphere, and
fastened to a hoop which passed round the middle of the balloon. To
this a sort of car was suspended, a few feet below the lower part of the
balloon; and in order to prevent the bursting of the machine, a valve was
placed in it, by opening of which some of the inflammable air might be
allowed to escape. In the car, which was of basket-work, and covered
with linen, the two adventurers took their seats in the afternoon of the
first of December, 1783. At the time the balloon rose the barometer was
thirty degrees eighteen minutes, and it continued rising until the barome-
ter fell to twenty-seven degrees, from which they calculated that they
had ascended six hundred yards. By throwing out ballast occasionally
they found it practicable to keep nearly the same distance from the earth
during the rest of their voyage, the mercury fluctuating between twenty-
seven degrees and twenty-seven degrees sixty-five minutes, and the
thermometer between fifty-three and fifty-seven degrees the whole time.
They continued in the air an hour and three-quarters, and alighted at the
distance of twenty-seven miles from Paris, having suffered no inconvenience,
nor experienced any of the contrary currents described by the Marquis
d'Arlandes. M. Roberts having alighted, and much of the inflammable
gas still remaining, M. Charles determined on taking another voyage.
No sooner, therefore, was the balloon thus lightened of one hundred and
thirty pounds of its weight, than it arose with immense velocity, and in
twenty minutes was nine thousand feet above the earth, and out of sight
of all terrestrial objects. The globe, which had become flaccid, now
began to swell, and when M. Charles drew the valve, to prevent the
balloon from bursting, the inflammable gas, which was much warmer
than the external air, for a time diffused a warmth around, but afterward,
a considerable change was observable in the temperature. His fingers
were benumbed with cold, which also occasioned a pain in his right ear
and jaw, but the beauty of the prospect compensated for these incon-
veniences. The sun, which had been set on his ascent, became again
visible for a short time, in consequence of the height which he had reached.
He saw for a few seconds vapors rising from the valleys and rivers. The
clouds seemed to rise from the earth, and collect one upon the other; only
their color was gray and obscure from the dimness of the light. By the
light of the moon he perceived that the machine was turning round with
him, and that there were contrary currents which brought him back
again; he also observed with surprise, that the wind caused his banners
to point upward, although he was neither rising nor descending, but
moving "horizontally. On alighting in a field about three miles distant
from the p'ace where he set out, he calculated that he had ascended at
this time not less than ten thousand five hundred feet. Hitherto all
experiments of this kind had been unattended with anv evil consequences,
but an attempt which was made to put a small aerostatic machine with
rarefied air under an inflammable air balloon, proved fatal to the adven-
474 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
turers, M. Pilatre de Rozier and M. Romaine. Their inflammable air
balloon was about thirty-seven feet in diameter, and the power of the
rarefied air one was equivalent to about sixty pounds. They were not
long in the air when the inflammable air balloon was seen to swell
considerably, and the aeronauts were observed, by means of telescopes,
to be very anxious to descend, and busied in pulling the valve and giving
every possible facility of escape to the inflammable air, but, in spite of all
their endeavors, the balloon took fire without any explosion and the unfor-
tunate gentlemen were precipitated to the earth at the height of about
three-quarters of a mile. M. Pilatre seemed to have been dead before
he came to the ground; but M. Romaine was found to be alive, although
he expired immediately after. The ill success of this experiment, which
had been made for the purpose of diminishing the expense of inflating
the machine with gas, did not interrupt the progress of aerostation.
Aerial voyages continued to be made on the old scheme. The first trial
in England was made by Vincent Lunardi, an Italian, on the fifteenth
of September, 1784. His balloon, the diameter of which was thirty-three
feet, was made of oiled silk, painted in alternate stripes of blue and red.
From a net, which went over about two-thirds of the balloon, descended
forty-five cords to a. hoop hanging below it, and to which the gallery was
attached. Instead of a valve, the aperture at the neck of the balloon,
which was in the shape of a pear, served for admitting or letting out the
inflammable air. The air for filling the balloon was produced from zinc,
by means of diluted vitriolic acid. M. Lunardi ascended from the Artillery
Ground, at two o'clock, having with him a dog, a cat and a pigeon. He
was obliged to throw out some of his ballast, in order to clear the houses,
when he rose to a considerable height, proceeding first northwest by west
and then nearly north. About half after three he descended very near
the earth, and landed the cat, which was half dead with the cold; he
then reascended by throwing out some more of his ballast, and ten min-
utes past four he alighted in a meadow near Ware, in Hertfordshire. His
thermometer stood in the course of his voyage as low as twenty-nine
degrees, and he observed that the drops of water collected round the
balloon wei'e frozen. The second aerial voyage in England was per-
formed by Mr. Blanchard, on the sixteenth of October, in the same year,
in which he was accompanied by Mr. Shelden, professor of anatomv at
the Royal Academy, the first Englishman that adventured in such an
excursion. They ascended a few minutes past twelve o'clock, and after
proceeding about fourteen miles beyond Chelsea, Mr. Blanchard landed
Mr. Shelden, reascended alone, and finally landed near Rumsey, in
Hampshire, about seventy-five .miles from London, which was at the rate
of about twenty miles an hour. Mr. Blanchard ascended so high, that
he felt a difficulty in breathing, and a pigeon, which flew from the boat,
labored for some time to sustain itself, but was at length compelled to
return and rest on the boat.
Aerial voyages now became frequent in England and elsewhere, and
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 475
afforded nothing worthy of notice before the ascent of M. Garnerin, in
1802, who undertook the singular and desperate experiment of descending
by means of a parachute. In this descent it was observed that the para-
chute, with the appendage of cords and the basket in which M. Garnerin
had seated himself, vibrated like the pendulum of a clock, and at times
the vibrations were so violent, that more than once the parachute and the
basket seemed to be on the same level, or quite horizontal, which pre-
sented a terrific spectacle of danger to the spectator. They diminished,
however, as M. Garnerin approached the earth, and he was landed in
safety, though strongly affected with the violent shocks that his frame
had experienced."
476
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
THE JEWS OF CHICAGO.
Rufus Blanchard's very complete and trustworthy history of Chicago,
which has just been published, and which is a monument to studious and
careful research, contains the following : "The number of Jews living at
present in Chicago, is variously estimated to be between fifteen and twenty
thousand. A historian writing the history of the Northwest, and especially
of the great Western metropolis situated at the shore of Lake Michigan,
must of necessity not neglect to give an account also of the first Jewish
immigration; of the growth of the important Jewish element in our
midst; of their temples and societies; their contributions toward the
development and prosperity of Chicago, spiritually and morally, as well
as materially, and so forth.
It is very likely that some single Jewish individuals settled in Chicago,
or attempted to settle here between 1830 and 1840, for in this decade large
numbers of German Jews had come to America, expecting to find not
only better prospects in their various pursuits of life, but also a refuge
from the oppressive and exclusive laws under which the Jews still had to
suffer at that time in the old Fatherland. Here, in the United States,
they found a new Fatherland, granting them full civil and political rights
equally with the citizens of other denominations; and these new-comers,
confessing the old Hebrew faith, appreciated this, and warm and sin-
cere was the thankful attachment to their new country.
A large number, of course, remained at first in the great cities on
the Atlantic sea shore — in New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore; but
a considerable number soon found their way to the Valley of the Ohio
and to the prairies of the West.
For the first time a larger number of Israelites came to Chicago,
or rather, to be more exact, to Cook county, Illinois, in 1843. A certain
William Renau, a young and enthusiastic gentleman of the Jewish
faith, then living in New York city, took measures for the establishment
of a Jewish Colonization Society, and his labor was not in vain. A num-
ber of Israelites entered into his plans and intentions, and joined his
society. After the organization had been sufficiently consummated, the
society deputed a Mr. Meyer to go West, to select lands for the members,
upon which they might settle, and to report the results of his investiga-
tions and researches to the society. Mr. Meyer accordingly went West,
and after looking around for several weeks in different parts of the coun-
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 477
try, he selected a parcel of land comprising one hundred and sixty acres,
situated in the . town of Schaumburg, Cook county, Illinois, which he
purchased for himself, and where he remained. To the society in New
York he reported by a written document which was very encouraging,
and in which he urged the members to migrate to this part of the coun-
try without hesitation, for — so he said substantially — 'this is a land in
which milk and honey is flowing, particularly for tillers of the soil; and
this part of the land, and especially the still insignificant town of Chicago
opens furthermore a vista into a large commercial future.'
Thereupon the majority of the society set out for the West and came
to Chicago. They met here Mr. Meyer, and from him they received
more complete details.
After many consultations, it was found that many disagreed to the
plans laid out beforehand by Mr. Meyer; the consequence was that they
did not settle together in a body, as it had been intended from the begin-
ning; but still determined to carry out the plan of farming, they scattered
in different directions. Some bought farms already improved; others
claimed government lands; still others settled down in villages, and con-
nected farming with mercantile life.
The majority of these men, by their industry and their frugal and
economical habits, succeeded in becoming pretty well to do.
After the Illinois and Michigan Canal and the/ailroad from Chicago
to Elgin had been completed, Chicago became quite a center of attraction
for people inclined to trade, and Jewish families in comparatively large
numbers, came to make it their home. Two Jewish families had been
residing here in the city somewhat previous to this time, and one of them,
Benedict Schubert, had become quite wealthy. It was he who had
built the first brick house in Chicago. He had been a tailor by trade,
and was very poor when he came to live in that town. But by his industry
and the industry of his wife, he soon acquired sufficient means, and he
became, in his day, the only prominent merchant tailor in Chicago.
Mr. Meyer, spoken of before, after having become advanced in years,
and being without grown children old enough to be of any help to him,
was among those who came to the city to live. He had sold his
farm, and invested all his funds in Chicago real estate. As a far-seeing
man of sound judgment in such matters, he advised all his friends and
acquaintances to act similarly ; at, least, he desired that they should do so
with a part of their means. By many he was looked upon as an eccentric.
However, the result proved that he was right. Though his investments
brought no immediate fruits to himself, yet to those who came after him
and took his advice, it was a rich mine of wealth.
Chicago had meanwhile become widely known, especially since it
was rumored that it would be a great railroad center, and thereby many
Israelites were induced to select this place as their home. Among the first
ones who about that time came to Chicago, we mention the brothers Kohn,
L. Rosenfeld, Jacob Rosenberg, the brothers Rubel, the brothers Greene-
478 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
baum, Samuel Cole, Mayer Klein, M. M. Gerstley, Fuller, Weineman,
Brunneman, Clayburgh, Weigselbaum, Zeigler, etc. Since Chicago has
had enterprising and energetic citizens of the Jewish persuasion in almost
all branches of mercantile and industrial life, and since several years there
reside here, also, a considerable number of Israelites belonging to the
learned professions — lawyers, physicians and others — who have justly
acquired the esteem of their fellow citizens, and who contributed their
share toward the general prosperity and the general good standing of
the city.
We would, indeed, have to occupy a large space were we to enumer-
ate all the Jewish houses engaged in the various branches of business,
even if we should restrict ourselves to wholesale business. Commerce
in dry goods, clothing, hardware, boots and shoes, tobacco, in short, in
every imaginable branch, is largely shared by Jewish houses. So are
many banking institutions owned and successfully conducted by Jewish
firms. So is the manufacturing of clothing, cutlery, chemical prepara-
tions, cigars, furniture; so are printing and lithographic institutions, book-
binderies, tanneries, beef packing houses, etc., conducted by Jewish
owners and energetic Jewish minds and hands.
But it is time that we come now to speak of the religious organiza-
tions of the Jews of Chicago. For the first time the Chicago Jews
entered into such a religious organization in 1845, an<^ ^ie ^rs^ public act
by which they demonstrated their existence as a body corporate, was the
purchase from the city of a piece of ground for a cemetery. This old
Jewish cemetery had to be given up as such in 1856, the city having
become meanwhile so extended that this cemetery was within the city
limits. At present the same forms a part of the Lincoln Park. Not long
after this cemetery had been acquired, the association who owned it
organized into a regular congregation. This was the first Jewish congre-
gation in Chicago and very likely of the whole Northwest. It was
chartered in 1848 under the name 'Kehillath Anshey Maarab' — Congrega-
tion of the Men of the West. Its first services were held in a hall situated
in the uppermost floor of an old frame building on the southwest corner
of Lake and Wells streets, and Ignatz Kunreuther was the first minister of
this congregation. After the congregation had become strong enough,
financially, they leased a lot on Clark street, between Quincy and Jackson
streets, upon which they erected a synagogue. At the expiration of that
lease they bought a lot on the northeast corner of Adams and Wells streets,
where they built another synagogue. Here they remained for several
years, until the house became too small for the congregation. Thev then
sold this property, and bought a church on the corner of Peck Court and
W abash avenue, where they remained until the building was destroyed
by the great fire of 1871. Afterward they purchased a church on the
corner of Twenty-sixth street and Indiana avenue, and there the congre-
gation Anshey Maarab still worship.
After Reverend Mr. Kunreuther above mentioned, the following
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 479
gentlemen officiated successively as ministers of this congregation: G.
Snydacker, G. M. Cohen, L. Lebrecht, L. Levi, M. Mensor, M. Moses
and L. Adler. The last named Rabbi, who was called here in 1861. is
still occupying the position of the spiritual guide of the congregation,
and labors within his field with great success, as a true teacher of religion
and of Judaism.
Not exactly a congregation, but a society of a semi-religious charac-
ter was also instituted at an early date by a number of younger Israelites
in Chicago, under the name of 'Hebrew Benevolent Society.' In its
flourishing days it did a great deal of good in the field of chanty. It
purchased also three acres of ground in the town of Lake View, a little
south of Graceland, and laid it out for a cemetery.
Later other charitable societies came into existence, by which the
old Hebrew Benevolent Society became superseded. Nominally, how-
ever, it still exists, but merely as a burial ground association.
A second Hebrew congregation was established in 1851 by a number
of Israelites, mainly from the Eastern provinces of Prussia, and to which
the founders gave the name 'Kehillath B'nay Shalom' — Congregation of
the Sons of Peace. This congregation rented first a hall in a building
on the southwest corner of Dearborn and Washington streets; afterward
they occupied a hall in a building on Clark street, near Jackson street,
and in 1864 they dedicated their new synagogue on Harrison street, near
Fourth avenue. This structure, in its time the most beautiful of all the
Chicago synagogues, fell a prey to the great conflagration of 1871. Since
then the congregation, which had greatly suffered by the fire, rallied
again and erected a new house of worship on Michigan avenue, between
Fourteenth and Sixteenth streets. Among the Rabbis who officiated in
this congregation, we mention A. J. Messing, M. Spitz and H. Gersoni.
The third Jewish congregation which was founded in Chicago, is
'Sinai Congregation.' Its first meeting for devotional purposes was held
June, 1851, in a temple situated on Monroe street, near LaSalle street,
and in which the congregation continued to worship until April, 1865, at
which time they consecrated their new temple on the northwest corner
of VanBuren street and Third avenue. By the fire of 1871 this temple
was laid in ashes. The congregation was then without a meeting house
of their own for several years. But in April, 1875, they dedicated their
new temple on the southwest corner of Twenty-first street and Indiana
avenue — an imposing structure they still occupy.
The Rabbis who officiated successively in this congregation were
Dr. B. Felsenthal, in 1861-64; Dr. I. Chronik, in 1866-71; from 1864 to
1865 the office was vacant; Dr. K. Kohler, in 1871-79; the present
incumbent, Dr. E. G. Hirsch, since September, 1880.
Another congregation, the fourth one in chronological order, was
established by Israelites residing in the West Division, in 1864. It was char-
tered under the name Zion Congregation. Its first divine service was
held in September, 1864, and the first temple it occupied was situated on
480 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
Desplaines street, between Washington and Madison streets. The build-
ing had originally been a Baptist church, and had been sold to the young
Jewish congregation. In 1869 the congregation disposed of their temple
which they then possessed, and erected a new structure in a more suitable
location, to wit, on the southeast corner of Jackson and Sangamon streets.
Dr. Felsenthal was invited to fill the Rabbi's chair in this congregation
as soon as it had organized — in 1864 — and he still occupies the office.
In 1867 'The North Side Hebrew Congregation,' now worshiping
in a rented locality on Dearborn avenue, east of Washington Park, was
established. Previous to the great fire, this congregation had a temple
on Ohio street, near Wells street, but the fire destroyed it. A. Nordon,
who was the first minister of this congregation, but who became deprived
of his situation in consequence of the conflagration, wras elected some
years ago by his congregation as their Rabbi, and is still officiating as such.
During the last ten years a number of other Jewish congregations
have been built, and at present Chicago numbers thirteen chartered Jew-
ish congregations.
Coming now to charitable Jewish societies, it deserves to be men-
tioned that quite a number of them were in existence already in earlier
years. In 1859 the United Hebrew Relief Association was founded,
a society still existing, and affording aid and assistance to destitute, sick
and otherwise suffering persons, to widows and orphans, and so forth, and
thereby doing a great deal of philanthropic work. Also many other
charitable societies exist, yet this United Hebrew Relief Association has
maintained its place among the Chicago Israelites as the most favored
society of its class, and by the liberality of the Jewish inhabitants of this
place, it is enabled to spend annually considerable amounts of money for
its noble purposes. In fact, most of the other benevolent societies regard
themselves, in a certain sense of the word, as but branches or component
societies of this institution.
Its first president was Henry Greenebaum; at present Isaac Greens-
felder presides over it. For several years past F. Kiss acts as superin-
tendent, and is daily on duty in behalf of this association.
A hospital had been erected under the auspices of the United Hebrew
Relief Association in the year 1868, and was conducted on most liberal
principles. It was situated on LaSalle street, near Schiller street. But
this hospital, too, fell a prey to the fire on October 9th, 1871. At present
a new Jewish hospital is being built on the lake shore, foot of Twenty-
ninth street. The United Hebrew Relief Association has mainly been
enabled to undertake the rebuilding of the hospital by the munificence
of the late M. Reese, of San Francisco, California, who in his last will
bequeathed to the society the amount of fifty thousand dollars, to be
devoted toward the erection of such a hospital.
Among this class of charitable societies, may also be counted a num-
ber of lodges of various Jewish orders. After the pattern of the Free
Masons, Odd Fellows and similar orders, there were some Jewish orders
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. '.jSi
formed in the United States, as for instance the Independent Order of
B'nay Brith — Sons of the Covenant — the Independent Order of the Free
Sons of Israel, the Kesher Shel Barrel — Iron League — all of which have
philanthropic ends in view. All of these orders are represented in Chi-
cago by a number of lodges.
We must not omit to mention here that several Jewish societies for
literary purposes, debating clubs and the like, and for amusement, have
at various times been established here. Of some prominence, in their
time, were the Concordia Club and Harmonia Club, not in existence; the
Standard Club, still existing and flourishing; the Zion Literary Society,
also still prospering, and others.
It remains to be mentioned that in several other cities in the North-
west Jews have settled in more or less great numbers, and have formed
congregations and other societies. So are fine prosperous Jewish congre-
gations to be found in Milwaukee, St. Paul, Springfield, Quincy, Peoria,
and there is hardly any village where not a few Israelites may be found,
though their number may be too small to organize and to maintain a
regular congregation.
A grand institution toward which the Jews of the Northwest all
contribute, and which belongs to them in common, is the Jewish Orphan
Asylum, in Cleveland. It is said to be one of the largest, best conducted,
and best endowed institution of its kind in the United States."
4S'
CHAPTER XXXIX.
CENTENNIAL TRIBUTE TO CHICAGO.
In an oration delivered at the Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia,
August 29th, 1876, Charles H. Fowler, D. D., L. L. D., after eloquently
describing the resources and record of Illinois, made the following histor-
ical and prophetic reference to Chicago:
"Spur your horse for a half day up the base of 'The Cap of Liberty,'
in the Yosemite Valley; stop at noon, worn and weary, on the borders
where vegetation ceases; stretch your arms up toward the bold, far-away
summit, and then you will feel the impossibility of compassing that bold
old peak in one thought. In like manner set your thought upon the
subject before us-r— this mysterious, majestic, might}* city, born first of
water, and next of fire; sown in weakness, and raised in power; planted
among the willows of the marsh, and crowned with the glory, of the
mountains; sleeping on the bosom of the prairie, and rocked on the bosom
of the sea; the youngest city of the world, and still the eye of the prairie,
as Damascus, the oldest city of the world, is the eye of the desert. With
a commerce far exceeding that of Corinth on her isthmus, in the highway
to the East; with the defenses of a continent piled around her by the
thousand miles, making her far safer than Rome on the banks of the Tiber;
with schools eclipsing Alexandria and Athens; with liberties more con-
spicuous than those of the old republics; with a heroism equal to the first
Carthage, and with a sanctity scarcely second to that of Jerusalem — set
your thoughts on all this, lifted into the eyes of all men by the miracle
of its growth, illuminated by the flame of its fall, and transfigured by the
divinity of its resurrection, and you will feel, as I do, the utter impossi-
bility of compassing this subject as it deserves. Some impression of her
importance is received from the shock her burning gave to the civilized
world.
When the doubt of her calamity was removed, and the horrid fact
was accepted, there went a shudder over all cities, and a quiver over all
lands. There was scarcely a town in the civilized world that did not
shake on the brink of this opening chasm. The flames of our homes
reddened all skies. The city was set upon a hill, and could not be hid.
All eyes were turned upon it. To have struggled and suffered amid the
scenes of its fall is as .distinguishing as to have fought at Thermopylae, or
Salamis, or Hastings, or Waterloo, or Bunker Hill. Its calamity amazed
the world, because it was felt to be the common property of mankind.
.
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 483
The early history of the city is full of interest, just as the early his-
tory of such a man as Washington or Lincoln becomes public property,
and is cherished by every patriot.
Starting with five hundred acres in 1833, it embraced and occupied
twenty-three thousand acres in 1869, and, having now a population of more
than five hundred thousand, it commands general attention.
Colbert, of the Chicago TRIBUNE, so highly honored by, and so
honoring, our daily press — that strange compound of music and mathe-
matics, of the sciences of the books and the items of a daily newspaper —
develops the fact that the first white man that ever settled in Chicago
was a negro. He opened trade with the Indians in 1796, and consecrated
this soil to the Fifteenth Amendment. But more than a hundred years
before that, Father Marquette spent some months here, on his way from
the North to the Mississippi, and, laboring as a missionary among the
Indians, consecrated this soil to Christianity. Old Fort Dearborn with
its wall of piles, sharpened at the top, and its concealed dugway to the
river, and its officers' mansion of logs, was planted in 1812. The first
house was built by J. H. Kinzie, in 1815. A mere trading-post was kept
here from that time till about the time o*f the Black Hawk war in 1832.
It was not the city. It was merely a cock crowing at midnight. The
morning was not yet. In 1833 the settlement about the fort was
incorporated as a town. The voters were divided on the propriety of
such incorporation, twelve voting for it and one against it. Four years
later it was incorporated as a city, and embraced five hundred and sixty
acres.
The produce handled in this city is an indication of its power. Grain
and flour were imported from the East till as late as 1837. The first
exportation by way of experiment was in 1839. Exports exceeded im-
ports first in 1842. The Board of Trade was organized in 1848, but it
was so weak that it needed nursing till 1855. Grain was purchased by
the wagon load in the street.
I remember sitting with my father on a load of wheat, in the long
line of wagons along Lake street, while the buyers came and untied the
bags, and examined the grain, and made their bids. That manner of
business had to cease with the day of small things. Now our elevators
will hold fifteen million bushels of grain. The cash value of the produce
handled in a year is two hundred and fifteen million dollars, and the pro-
duce weighs seven million tons or seven hundred thousand car loads.
This handles thirteen and a half tons each minute, all the year round.
One-tenth of all the wheat in the United States is handled in Chicago.
Even as long ago as 1853 the receipts of grain in Chicago exceeded those
of the goodly city of St. Louis, and in 1854 the exports of grain from
Chicago exceeded those of New York, and doubled those of St. Peters-
burg, Archangel, or Odessa, the largest grain markets in Europe.
The manufacturing interests of the city are not contemptible. In
1873 manufactories employed forty-five thousand operatives; in 1876,
484 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
sixty thousand. The manufactured product in 1875 was worth one hun-
dred and seventy-seven million dollars.
No estimate of the size and power of Chicago would be adequate
that did not put large emphasis on the railroads. Before they came
thundering along our streets, canals were the hope of our country. But
who ever thinks now of traveling by canal packets? In-June, 1852, there
were only forty miles of railroad connected with the city. The old
Galena division of the Northwestern ran out to Elgin. But now, who
can count the trains and measure the roads that seek a terminus or con-
nection in this city ? Thfe lake stretches away to the north, gathering in-
to this center all the harvests that might otherwise pass to the north of us,
If you will take a map and look at the adjustment of railroads, you will
see, first, that Chicago is the great railroad city of the world, as New
York is the commercial city of this continent, and, second, that the rail-
road lines form the iron spokes of a great wheel whose hub is this city.
The lake furnishes the only break in the spokes, and this seems simply to
have pushed a few spokes together on each shore. All these roads have
come themselves by the infallible instincts of capital. Not a dollar was
ever given by the city to secure one of them, and only a small per cent.
of stock taken originally by her citizens, and that taken simply as an
investment. Coming in the natural order of events, they will not be easily
diverted.
There is still another showing to all this. The connection between
New York and»San Francisco is by the middle route. This passes
inevitably through Chicago. St. Louis wants the Southern Pacific or
Kansas Pacific, and pushes it out through Denver, and so on to Cheyenne.
But before the road is fairly under way, the Chicago road shoves out to
Kansas City, making even the Kansas Pacific a feeder, and actually leav-
ing St. Louis out in the cold. It is not too much to expect that Dakota,
Montana and Washington Territory will find their great market in Chi-
cago. «
But these are not all. Perhaps I had better notice here the ten or
fifteen new roads that have just entered, or are just entering, our city.
Their names are all that is necessary to give. Chicago and St. Paul,
looking up the Red River country to the British possessions; the Chicago,
Atlantic and Pacific; the Chicago, Decatur and State Line; the Baltimore
and Ohio; the Chicago, Danville and Vincennes; the Chicago and LaSalle
railroad; the Chicago, Pittsburg and Cincinnati; the Chicago and Can-
ada Southern; the Chicago and Illinois River railroad. These, with
their connections, and with the new connections of the old roads already
in process of erection, give to Chicago not less than ten thousand miles
of new tributaries from the richest land on the continent. Thus there
will be added to the reserve power, to the capital within the reach of this
city, not less than one billion dollars.
Add to all this transporting power the ships, that sail one every nine
minutes of the business hours of the season of navigation; add, also, the
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 485
canal boats, that leave one every minute during the same time, and you
will see something of the business of the city.
The commerce bf this city has been leaping along to keep pace with
the growth of the country around us. In 1852 our commerce reached
the hopeful sum of twenty million dollars. In 1870 it reached four hun-
dred million dollars. In 1871 it was pushing up above four hundred and
fifty million dollars. And in 1875 it touched nearly double that.
One half of our imported goods come directly to Chicago. Grain
enough is exported directly from our docks to the Old World to employ
a semi-weekly line of steamers of three thousand tons capacity. This
branch is not likely to be greatly developed. Even after the great Wei-
land Canal is completed, we shall have only fourteen feet of water. The
great ocean vessels will continue to control the trade.
The banking capital of Chicago is twenty-four million, four hundred
and thirty-one thousand dollars. Total exchange in 1875, six hundred and
fifty-nine million dollars. Her wholesale business in 1875 was two hun-
dred and ninety-four million dollars. The rate of taxes is less than in
any other great city.
The schools of Chicago are unsurpassed in America. Out of a
population of three hundred thousand there were only one hundred and
eighty-six persons between the ages of six and twenty-one unable to read.
This is the best known record.
In 1831 the mail system was condensed into a half-breed, who went
on foot to Niles, Michigan, once in two weeks, and brought back what
papers and news he could find. As late as 1848 there was often only one
mail a week. A postoffice was established in Chicago in 1833, an(^ the
postmaster nailed up old boot-legs on one side of his shop to serve as
boxes for the nabobs and literary men.
It is an interesting fact in the growth of the young city that in the
active life of the business men of that day the mail matter has grown to
a daily average of over six thousand five hundred pounds. It speaks equally
well for the intelligence of the people and the commercial importance of
the place, that the mail matter distributed to the territory immediately
tributary to Chicago, is seven times greater than that distributed to the
territory immediately tributary to St. Louis. The improvements that
have characterized the city are as startling as the city itself.
In 1831, Mark Beaubien established a ferry over the river, and put
himself under bonds to carry all the citizens free for the privilege of
charging strangers. Now there are twenty-four large bridges and two
tunnels.
In 1833 the government expended thirty thousand dollars on the
harbor. Then commenced that series of manoeuvers with the river that
has made it one of the world's curiosities. It used to wind around in the
lower end of the town, and make its way rippling over the sand into
the lake at the foot of Madison street. They took it up and put it down
where it now is. It was a narrow stream, so narrow that even a moder-
486 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHECE CITIZENS.
ately small craft had to go up through the willows and cat tails to the
point near Lake street bridge, and back up one of the branches to get
room enough in which to turn round.
In 1844 the quagmires in the streets were first pontooned by plank
roads, which acted in wet weather as public squirt-guns. Keeping you
out of the mud, they compromised by squirting the mud over you. The
wooden block pavements came to Chicago in 1857. In 1840 water was
delivered by peddlers in carts, or by hand. Then a twenty-five horse
power engine pushed it through hollow or bored logs along the streets
until 1854, when it was introduced into the houses by new work. The
first fire engine was used in 1835, an(* tne first steam fire engine in 1859,
Gas was utilized for lighting the city in 1850. The Young Men's Chris-
tian Association was organized in 1858, and horse railroads carried them
to their work in 1859. The museum was opened in 1863. The alarm
telegraph was adopted in 1864. The Opera House built in 1865. The
city grew from five hundred and sixty acres in 1833 to twenty-three
thousand in 1869. In 1834 the taxes amounted to forty-eight dollars and
ninety cents, and the trustees of the town borrowed sixty dollars more
for opening and improving streets. In 1835 ^ie legislature authorized
a loan of two thousand dollars, and the treasurer and street commissioners
resigned rather than plunge the town into such a gulf.
Now the city embraces thirty-six square miles of territory, and has
thirty miles of water front, besides the outside harbor of refuge, of four
hundred acres, enclosed by a crib sea-wall. One third of the city has
been raised up an average of eight feet, giving good pitch to the two
hundred and three miles of sewerage. The water of the city is above
all competition. It is received through two tunnels extending to a crib
in the lake two miles from shore. The closest analysis fails to detect any
impurities, a nd received thirty -five feet below the surface, is always clear
and cold. The first tunnel was five feet two inches in diameter and two
miles long, and can deliver fifty million of gallons per day. The second
tunnel is seven feet in diameter, and six miles long, running four miles
under the city, and can deliver one hundred million of gallons per dav.
This water is distributed through four hundred and ten miles of water
mains.
The three grand engineering exploits of the city are: First, lifting
the city up on jack-screws, whole squares at a time, without interrupting
the business, thus giving us good drainage ; second, running the tunnels
under the lake, giving us the best water in the world; and, third, the
turning of the current of the river in its own channel, delivering us from
the old abominations, and making decency possible. They redounded
about equally to the credit of the engineering, to the energy of the people,
and to the health of the city.
That which really constitutes the city, its indescribable spirit, its soul,
the way it lights up in every feature in the hour of action, has not been
touched. In meeting strangers, one is often surprised how some homely
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 487
women marry so well. Their forms are bad, their gait uneven and
awkward, their complexion is dull, their features misshapen and mis-
matched, and when we see them there is no beauty that we should desire
them. But once they are aroused on some subject, they put on new pro-
portions. They light up into great power. The real person comes out
from its unseemly ambush, and captures us at will. They have power.
They have ability to cause things to come to pass. We no longer wonder
why they are in such high demand. So it is with our city. To the
stranger it seems flat, and cheap, wooden. There is plenty of wind, and
no lack of dust, and a full supply of mud. There is no grand scenery
except the two seas, one of water, the other of prairie. Nevertheless,
there is a spirit about it, a push, a breath, a power, that soon makes it a
place never to be forsaken. One soon ceases to believe in impossibilities.
Balaams are the only prophets that are disappointed. The bottom that
has been in the point of falling out has been there so long that it has
grown fast. It cannot fall out. It has all the capital of the world itching
to get inside the corporation. As when you kill a Chicago rat a hundred
more will come to the funeral, so when one man falls or is crushed, a
hundred large ones leap for his place.
When we turn our gaze toward the futiu-e — and turn it we must, for
we are all prophets, and the sons of prophets — from questioning that
which is to come, we are startled with the developments that are insured
by the inevitable march of events.
May I tell you what I see, and be allowed to depart in peace? I must
tell you. This is the purpose for which I am here. In the language of
an old hero, I say, 'Strike, but hear!'
I see Chicago in the future as the greatest city in the world. It is in
league with events, and must grow to this measure. It is inland, protected
from all foreign foes. It is on the productive belt of the temperate zone,
where thrive all the aggressive civilizations. It is near the center of the
continent, and the center of the great valley that could support a thousand
million people; and it commands more territory than any ten great cities
of the world combined. The two great laws that govern the growth
and size of cities, are, first, the amount of territory for which they are the
distributing and receiving points; second, the number of medium or
moderate dealers that do this distributing. Monopolists build up them-
selves, not the cities. They neither eat, wear, nor live in proportion to
their business. Both these laws help Chicago.
The tide of trade is eastward — not up or down the map, but across
the map. The lake runs up a wing dam for five hundred miles to gather
in the business. Commerce cannot ferry up there for seven months in
the year, and the facilities for seven months can do the work for twelve.
Then the great region west of us is nearly all good, productive land.
Dropping south into the trail of St. Louis, you fall into vast deserts and
rocky districts, useful in holding the world together. St. Louis and Cin-
cinnati, instead of rivaling and hurting Chicago, are her greatest sureties
488 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
of dominion. They are far enough away to give sea-room — farther off
than Paris is from London — and yet they are near enough to prevent the
springing up of any other great city between them.
St. Louis will be helped by the opening of the Mississippi, but also
hurt. That will put New Orleans on her feet, and with a railroad running
over into Texas, and so west, she will tap the streams that now crawl up
the Texas and Missouri road. The current is east, not north, and a sea-
port at New Orleans cannot permanently help St. Louis.
Chicago is in the field almost alone, to handle the wealth of one-fourth
of the territory of this great Republic. This strip of seacoast divides its
margins between Portland, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore
and Savannah, or some other great port to be created for the South in
the next decade. But Chicago has a dozen empires casting their treasures
into her lap. On a bed of coal that can run all the machinery of the
world for five hundred centuries; in a garden that can feed the race by
the thousand years; at the head of the lakes that give her a temperature
as a Summer resort equaled by no great city in the land; with a climate
that insures the health of her citizens; surrounded by all the great deposits
of natural wealth in mines and forests and herds, Chicago is the wonder
of the day, and will be The City of the future."
4S9
CHAPTER XL.
CHICAGO TYPE FOUNDRY HOW TYPE IS MADE.
The Chicago Type Foundry was first established in 1855 as a branch
house of a New York type foundry. Old machinery, tools and imple-
ments that had become worn and obsolete were shipped to Chicago to
start the new branch house. The first type cast in Chicago was made
for the Springfield, Illinois, JOURNAL. The productions of three to four
casting machines furnished the printers and publishers with most of the
newspaper type sold west of Chicago. The branch house, under the man-
agement of men* sent here from the East, did not prove a success, and not
until the foundry changed hands in 1863 was there any progress made in
building it up with new machinery. A new firm formed — D. Scofield
& Company — composed of David Scofield, John Marder and Henry A.
Porter, the last named remaining a partner for less than one year. In
1865, John Collins, father-in-law of Marder, was admitted to the firm,
when the name and style of the firm was changed to Scofield, Marder
& Company. After four years successful business Mr. Collins retired,
and in 1869 A. P. Luse purchased his interest, when the firm was changed
to that of Marder, Luse & Company, of which John Marder, A. P. Luse
and Carl Mueller are the partners.
The firm was in a prosperous condition and increasing and extending
its business in every direction out of Chicago, when the fire wiped out
its fine machinery and thousands of matrices, with a loss to the firm of
over one hundred thousand dollars, besides the delay in business. A type
foundry being a business of slow growth, three months passed before
much of any manufacturing could be done. The business which it had
taken years to build up was lost. Business going into other channels,
could only be got back after great sacrifice of time and labor. The printers
of Chicago all having lost largely by the fire, with but little insurance,
the firm assisted all worthy employing printers by giving them credit,
when not one in ten had any basis for credit as far as money went; but be
it said to the credit of the integrity of the Chicago printers and publish-
ers, Marder, Luse & Company, in a sale of three hundred thousand dollars
worth of presses and material, sold to replenish their offices, lost less than
two per cent, on this amount. The panic following close on the fire was
severe on all business. But Marder, Luse & Company, Marder being
the financial manager since the foundation of the various firms, always
paid one hundred cents on the dollar.
490
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
The firm of Marder, Luse & Company have earned the gratitude
of the printing fraternity by perfecting what is called the American system
of interchangeable type bodies. Every job printer of considerable experi-
ence knows how annoying it is, when endeavoring to combine different
sizes of type in the same line, to find that his material will not justify.
It often wants the thickness of a sheet of cardboard, or a slip of paper,
to render the locking of the two in the same line practicable. The
trimming of cardboard or paper consumes time. 'When the line is set in
this manner and locked in the form, it may be discovered that the letters
are so cut on the respective bodies of the two sizes, that when printed,
the alignment is imperfect. But even when the result secured by this
irregular contrivance is satisfactory, so far as the work goes, when it
comes to distributing the form in which the line has stood for some time,
the make-shift will be found noj; to have finished its mission as a time-killer.
The types often cling to such a strip with exasperating tenacity. Type
set in this manner being carelessly distributed, will generally be found to
have adhering to them small lumps of hard, dry paper pulp, which must
be scraped off before the same pieces can be used again.
When the differences in body of the types, to be employed in the
same line, is too great to be rectified by paper or cardboard, it then becomes
necessary to resort to leads. Here the obstacle in the way of rapid and
artistic work is that the type bodies and leads do not bear any such rela-
tion to each other as to their being used in every instance just where they
are most needed. The consequence is that the design must be abandoned,
or the defects of material supplied by other contrivances.
When the work requires the employment of larger initial letters in
alignment with two or more of smaller body, the job printer is driven to
the verge of desperation by the discovery that he has no two smaller bodies
which exactly equal the other. To be sure, if he happens to find what
he requires in any of the standard two-line bodies, his difficulties are
measurably reduced. But the knowledge that he must conform his design
to the arbitrary caprices of the type founder, is a constant clog on his
fancy. So few of the sizes are exact factors of other sizes that he must
curb his desire for tasteful display within the narrow limits prescribed by
necessity.
Now the impracticability of using cards and slips of paper to eke
out imperfect justification, lies in the fact that such things were never
designed for such uses. They are neither graduated in thickness, nor
composed of proper material to meet such emergencies satisfactorily.
The difficulty with the lead is that it is graded in size according to the
pica body. There are other sizes not susceptible of combination with
pica, and consequently not with pica leads. It is unnecessary to enumerate
them, as they are familiar to every .printer of twelve months' experience.
The Chicago Type Foundry has for years been working up a system
of type bodies, embracing leads and rules, by which thev shall become
interchangeable throughout. In doing this the proprietors have been
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 491
forced to act independently. Other founders, to whom this matter has
been presented to secure their co-operation, have seen proper to ignore
its importance. Marder, Luse & Company have shouldered the entire
responsibility and expense of this reform, involving a decided change in
some of the bodies heretofore in use, and the construction of implements
and machinery for the manufacture ot new bedies.
By reason of the destruction of their moulds and matrices in the fire
of 1871, a new start was rendered necessary, thus enabling them to make
this important change with less trouble and expense than it would incur
upon other founders, and also decreasing the liability of mixing the old
with the new bodies. The importance of this change as an item of
expense to them may be approximately estimated by any one, even slightly
acquainted with the practical details of type making. The advantages
of the new system to the job printer will be best appreciated by himself.
To compensate themselves, or to secure in the dim future an adequate
return for their outlay and trouble, the inventors of the system, and the
proprietors of the trade marks, have secured their right to the undisturbed
enjoyment of the American system of interchangeable type bodies. This
was done through no fear of attempts to pirate the system throughout, as
that would be an experiment too costly for many of this class of com-
petitors to undertake; but they wished to be in a position to protect their
customers from imposition by those who might try the less costly device
of copying some of the names by which the new sizes are to be known,
oradopting the name of the system itself.
This system, briefly explained, consists in adopting as the unit of
measurement for all type bodies, the American, which is exactly one-
twelfth of pica. This is the smallest and is applied only to leads and
rules. All thfe other bodies bear exact relations to this as indicated by
numbers. From American to nonpareil, which is numbered six, they
increase progressively by one-half the body of the first. Beyond this, to
pica, by an increase of the size of American. There are no bastard or
irregular sizes.
The reason why this radical change is so difficult and expensive is
that it could not be successfully carried out upon the patch-work principle.
Had the founders been content to accomplish the work by introducing
one slight change after another, the result would have been to introduce
confusion wherever the new bodies were mixed with the old. It required
a practical revolution in the entire system. This was at length accom-
plished, and we feel proud of the fact that the institution of a reform of
such magnitude should have been reserved for a Chicago foundry.
In this connection a description of type making will not be out
of place. In the earliest day of the art, printers made their own type,
and performed many other functions which are now delegated to others,
and the same roof covered several different accessory arts. Ere long,
however, the trades separated, and the type founder took his place in the
ranks. Of course, the first tools and materials used were crude and but poorly
492 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
fitted for the purposes for which they were designed. They were cast by
hand, one at a time, and the processes were necessarily slow and tedious.
The first attempt at type founding in the United States was made at
Germantown, Pennsylvania, by Christopher Saur, or Sower, about 1735,
who cast the types for a German Bible, which he himself printed. An
unsuccessful attempt was made to establish the business at Boston, about
1768, by a Scotchman named Mitchelson. Abel Buell soon after began
the business at Killingworth, Connecticut, and was granted a loan of
money by the Colonial General Assembly to aid him in his designs. At
the close of the Revolution, John Baine, of Edinburgh, came to this coun-
try and conducted the business until his death in 1790. About the close
of the last century, Messrs. Binney & Ronaldson successfully established
themselves at Philadelphia, and from that date type founding has been
reckoned among the industries of the country. Now there are about
thirty foundries in the United States; and it is no exaggeration to say
that they excel those of every other nation in the extent of their opera-
tions and the excellence of their wares, for in no other country can there
be found so beautiful and great a variety of faces as are made here.
Type metal is a composition of lead, tin, antimony and copper, all
of which metals are necessary to give the required ductility, hardness and
toughness. No other composition has ever been found which so well
answered all the purposes for type making.
The first step in the making of type is cutting the letter desired, on
the end of a piece of fine steel, forming the punch, which is afterward
hardened. This is an operation requiring great care and nicety — there
being comparatively few adepts at it — that the various sorts in a font may
be exactly uniform in their width, height and general proportions to each
other. A separate punch is required for each character in every font of
type, and the making of them is the most expensive portion of type
founding. During the process of its manufacture, the punch is frequently
tested or measured by delicate gauges, to insure its accuracy. When
finished, a smoke-proof taken and the letter pronounced perfect, it is
driven into a piece of polished copper, called the drive. This passes to
the fitter, who makes the width and depth of the faces uniform through-
out the font. They must then be made to line exactly with each other.
When thus completed, the drive becomes the matrix, wherein the face
of the type is made. This undergoes other processes in fitting and finish-
ing, to make it true and square with the body of the type. Matrices are
also made by the electrotype process, for the purpose of copying and
multiplying certain faces without incurring the great expense of cutting
new punches. The mould in which the body is formed, is made of
hardened steel, in two parts; one part is fastened to the machine and is
stationary, while the other is movable, so that it may be adjusted for the
proper width of the letters, as one is wider than another. The accuracy
of these moulds is patent to every printer, who knows that types must
be mathematically square, else they could not be used.
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 493
The combined matrix and mould are then adjusted to the type-cast-
ing machine, which is set at work manufacturing types at the rate of from
one hundred to one hundred and seventy-five per minute. The type-
casting machines in general use in this country and in Europe are of
American origin. The metal is kept fluid by a little furnace underneath,
and is projected into the mould by a pump, the spout of which is in front
of the metal pot. The mould is movable, and at every revolution of the
crank in the hand of the workman it comes up to the spout, receives a
charge of metal, and flies back with a fully formed type in its bosom; the
upper half of the mould lifts, and out jumps a type as lively as a tadpole.
You do not see how the letter was formed on the end of the type? True,
we had forgotten; well, this spring in front holds in loving proximity to
the mould a copper matrix, the letter a, for instance, stamped in the matrix,
directly opposite the aperture in the mould which meets the spout
of the pump; and when a due proportion of a is cast, another matrix
with b stamped in it takes its place; and so on throughout the w'hole
alphabet. In casting small fonts, where frequent changes are made in
the moulds, the machines are driven by hand power; but when the fonts
are large, as in daily newspapers, steam is used as a motor, and the indus-
trious little machines, with scarcely less than human intelligence, go
thumping along at their work, requiring but little care or attention, except
when changes in the matrices and moulds become necessary. The only
practicable method of making type is by casting them singly. All at-
tempts at making them by swaging, cutting or casting fifty or more at a
time have proven utter failures.
The tvpes are not finished when they leave the machine. There
will be found attached to each a wedge-shape jet, somewhat similar to
that on a bullet cast in a hand-mould. The loose types are placed upon
circular tables, around which are seated nimble-fingered boys or girls,
who pick them up at the rate of from two thousand to five thousand per
hour, at the same time breaking off the jets. A bur still adheres to the
shoulder of the type, and this is taken off by the rubbers, who rub the sides
of the letters on fine steel files, manufactured expressly for this purpose,
placed on circular tables. The kerned letters then go to the kerning
machine, where they are dressed without disturbing the kern or over-
hanging part of the type. The types next go to the setters, who set
them in long lines, ready for the dresser, who slips them into a long
stick — dressing rod — turns them on their face, fastens them in a bench
adapted for that purpose, and with a plane cuts a groove in the bottom,
taking off the bur left in breaking off the jet, leaving each type with
a pair of feet to stand upon, and then dresses off the under and upper
sides, giving them the bright silvery appearance so familiar in unused
type.
The picker now takes the type in hand, and with the aid of a magni-
fying glass picks out each defective letter, which is returned to the melting
kettle. They are then broken up into shorter lines for convenience in
494 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
handling, when they are sent to the dividing-room, where they are divided
into fonts, each having its due proportion of the respective sorts, made
into pages, wrapped in papers, sent to the office, packed, marked and
shipped to the purchaser, or put upon shelves awaiting orders.
Let us go back and observe some other processes connected with this
curious place. Many have undoubtedly wondered how brass rules, with
their multifarious faces, are made. The brass is rolled into broad plates,
varying in thickness with the purpose for which they are designed. These
are cut in strips a little more than type height in width, which are clamped
in an iron bench, where they are planed on the face to the pattern desired.
Waye rules are made by a curious crimping tool, while the leader and
fancy rules are milled by machinery — the larger faces by an engine lathe.
Metal furniture is first cast in hand-moulds, in long pieces, which are
placed in planing machines for the purpose of dressing the four sides.
They are then sawed to the required length and sent to the finisher, where
they are fitted to the sizes desired, insuring perfect accuracy.
Leads are also cast in hand-moulds, in pieces about fourteen inches
long. At one end, where it has entered the mould, will be found a large
lump of metal, which is cut off with a lead cutter. The leads are then
sent to the planer and shaved both sides, securing an even thickness for
their entire length. They are then ready to be cut to any desired measure.
Singular to relate, comparatively few printers ever see any more of
a type foundry than its business office, and except from reading, know
little or nothing of the ramifications of a business more intimately con-
nected with their own than any other. Those who have not already
done so will find such a place one of the most interesting they can visit,
and, withal, they will be apt to learn something that will be of value to
them in the future. Visitors to the city, whether printers or not, will
find there countless things to amuse, and, perhaps, instruct them.
•
495
JOHN HARDER.
The life of John Marder is an illustration of the success that crowns
individual effort and sterling moral worth. Springing from a compara-
tively humble origin, and favored with limited educational advantages,
he went out into the world while yet a boy, to carve his own fortune and
to achieve position in life. Always industrious, careful in the discharge
of duty, scrupulously honest and straightforward in business, he has
become a representative of legitimate and enlightened enterprise whose
beneficent results enhance public good as well as individual prosperity.
To the average American there is something of fascination about a life
that has thus developed from modest beginnings into well earned, useful
and acknowledged prominence; and while American society is thickly
studded with such monuments to natural ability and untiring energy, they
never cease to interest and never fail to instruct. Nor does the fact that
so many of our prominent business and professional men have been the
architects of their own fortunes, Tairly hewing a pathway to distinction
through obstacles and difficulties that seemed almost impenetrable and
insurmountable, at all detract from the merits of individual success under
such circumstances. In an age and nation in which there is such a broad
expanse of trained intellect and vigilant competition as there is in ours,
the young man who commences life without other aid than the endow-
ments of nature, and works himself above the great level in any industry
or calling, achieves what borders upon the marvelous, and the great public
eagerly seek the details of his progress to prominence.
Connected with "the art preservative of all arts," the enterprise and
success of Mr. Marder are peculiarly associated with the progress of the
great Northwest especially, and indirectly with that of the entire nation,
which depends so largely for its wealth and influence upon the general
intelligence, and its resulting material development, of this garden and
granary of the world. At the head of one of the largest type and print-
ing machinery manufactories in the country, the clatter of the printing
press and the columns of our newspapers and periodicals in our Western
cities and towns, are something that very closely unites the public pros-
perity and enjoyment with his name and enterprise. To the printing
fraternity he needs no word of introduction. The merit of the material
and machinery which comes from his establishment, his honorable deal-
ings with the fraternity, and his disposition to aid and encourage publishers
49^ CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
and those dependent upon them, in adversity, such as resulted from the
great fire in 1871 — when his house furnished thousands upon thousands
of dollars worth of material to those who had nothing to offer as security
but their misfortune and their honor — have won for him an exalted place
in the esteem and confidence of publishers and printers.
John Marder was born March 5th, 1835, m Greentown, Stark county,
Ohio, and is of German descent, his parents having come to this country
from Germany in 1820. His father, John B. Marder, died some years
since at the ripe age of seventy-eight years. His mother, whose maiden
name was Eva Margaret Schmidt, is still living at the age of eighty-four
at the old homestead in Ohio. The father of our subject was a quiet
industrious farmer, and the son, who is the youngest of the family, spent
his boyhood life upon the farm, laboring, as was the custom in those days,
nine months in the year and attending the district school during the
Winter months. His few school privileges, however, he improved to
the utmost, and when at sixteen he left both school and the home farm
to accept a situation as clerk in a book store at Akron, in his native State,
he did not cease his efforts to acquire an education, but applying himself
to books and closely observing things about him, gradually grew in both
theoretical and practical knowledge. As clerk in the Akron book store,
and as boy in the printing office which was connected with the establish-
ment, he faithfully performed every duty that was assigned, and by
carefully mastering the details of the printing business, not only added
to his general education, but laid the foundation for his later successes in
life. He remained at Akron until he attained his majority, when he
went to Davenport, Iowa, where he was employed as a clerk in a book
store for three years, at the expiration of which time he came to Chicago,
with scai'cely any capital except fine abilities, a resolute will and an
unimpeachable character. After three months of hope and discourage-
ment in this city, he secured the position of book-keeper in the Chicago
Type Foundry, then owned by a New York firm. Four months after
assuming this new position, however, President Lincoln called for seventy-
five thousand volunteers, and the young book-keeper at once responded
to the appeal of his country, enlisting as a private in Company A, Chicago
Light Artillery. At the close of the term of service for which the enlist-
ment was made, he returned to Chicago, and after aiding in raising the
artillery company connected with the Fifty-first Regiment of Illinois
Volunteers, again returned to his desk in the office of the Chicago Type
Foundry.
Mr. Marder had been connected with the establishment in the capac-
ity of book-keeper only two years, when with David Scofield and Henry
A. Porter he became part owner, the firm being D. Scofield & Company.
After some other changes in the membership and name of the firm — full
details of which are given in the previous chapter — in 1869 it became
Marder, Luse & Company.
Mr. Marder was at the height of business success, his firm rapidly
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 497
extending its business connections in every direction, when the fire of 1871
swept away his entire establishment, entailing a loss which would have
disheartened a less courageous spirit. Nothing daunted, however, he and
his associates went to work to re-establish their business and to retrieve
their losses. As quickly as possible, under the circumstances, a new loca-
tion was obtained, machinery was brought from the East, and the work
of the great establishment again began to assume method and to promise
prosperity to the enterprising owners. But the panic of 1873 followed
so quickly upon the disaster of 1871 that it greatly retarded the prosperity
of the firm, which in common with other business men and houses, suf-
fered sevei'e losses. With the most admirable energy, patience and
business tact, however, Mr. Marder as head of the firm and manager of
the finances of the house, directed its affairs safely through these storms
of adversity into the calm and the sunshine, and among the many financial
wrecks which marked these perilous years, the house of Marder, Luse &
Company stood as a monument to dauntless courage and persistent deter-
mination.
On the twelfth of December, 1861, the subject of our sketch was married
at Davenport, Iowa, to Fannie H. Collins. They have five children,
whose names and ages are as follows: John, sixteen; Walter, fourteen;
Amy, eleven; Clarence, nine, and Frances, five.
Mr. Marder has been a member of the Union Park Congregational
Church for nearly nineteen years, the greater part of which time he has
served on the board of trustees, holding that position at the present time.
The church has always found in him a safe adviser, and a generous sup-
porter. While thoroughly a man of business, and while much absorbed
in the management of his extensive business, he has never forgotten the
claims of society upon him, and charity and philanthropy have never had
a more judicious patron.
During his twenty years residence in Chicago, Mr. Marder has done
his full share in building up the fine business character of the city. His
life has been one of industry and honor, directed by superior native talent
and excellent judgment; and such a life cannot fail of impressing itself
upon a community. Yet a comparatively young man he has, in the
natural course of events, an average life time yet before him, during
which it is reasonable to expect that his present prominence in business
circles, and his well established character as a man and a citizen, will
enable him to exert a constantly increasing influence upon the manufac-
turing, commercial, social and moral development of this great city and
Western country.
CHAPTER XLI.
THE DEAD.
While space will not permit the insertion in this book of the por-
traits of all those who, as citizens of Chicago, have acted well their parts,
and left an ineffaceable impress upon the growth of the city, nor indeed
even allow the insertion of isolated biographies of all that have a claim
upon our notice and gratitude, there are some which cannot be passed
without a brief outline of their lives. Thfe following sketches, therefore,
are grouped together and placed under the head of this chapter:
"Dr. Charles H. Ray," writes Ex-Governor Bross, "was born at Nor-
wich, Chenango county, New York, March I2th, 1821, and removed to
the West in 1843. He commenced his Western life in the practice of
medicine at Muscatine, Iowa, and subsequently settled in Tazewell county,
Illinois, where he pursued his profession for many years with success.
During these years he was married to Jane Yates Per-Lee, a most esti-
mable lady, who died in June, 1862, leaving, as the fruits of the union,
one daughter and three sons. In the year 1851 Dr. Ray removed to
Galena, and bought the JEFFERSONIAN, a daily Democratic journal, and
conducted it with remarkable success, until the time of the Kansas-
Nebraska struggle, when his strong impulses toward freedom induced him
to take open issue with Judge Douglas, and eventually led to the disposal
of the paper and his identification with the Republican party, then in
the preliminary stage of organization. In 1854-55, Dr. Ray was Secre-
tary of the Illinois Senate, and presided as such during the exciting
canvass in that body which elected Lyman Trumbull United States
Senator over his opponent, Abraham Lincoln. He gave his influence
to the former, but in such an open, manly way that it never disturbed the
close personal friendship which existed between himself and the latter,
and which continued to exist to the time of Mr. Lincoln's death.
When the legislature adjourned, Dr. Ray came to Chicago with the
intention of starting a penny Republican paper. During the legislative
session he had been the Springfield correspondent of the New York
TRIBUNE, and his masterly letters to that paper had brought him into
extensive public notice as a writer. He wrote to Mr. Greeley on the
subject of a partner, asking him to recommend some suitable person, to
which Mr. Greeley replied with a letter of introduction to Joseph Medill,
of the Cleveland LEADER, who was just about coming to Chicago with
the object of connecting himself with the press of this city. Mr. Medill
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 499
arrived in Chicago at about the same time as Dr. Ray, and after an inter-
view, the former abandoned the idea of a penny paper, and joined the
latter in buying as much of the TRIBUNE establishment of General
Webster and Timothy Wright as their means would allow. He had
identified himself editorially with the TRIBUNE in April, 1855, but did
not assume his proprietary interest until June of the same year, which he
held until November 2oth, 1863, at which time he sold his interest and
severed his editorial connection with the paper, to engage in other pur-
suits. Those pursuits not proving successful, he returned to the TRIBUNE
May 25th, 1865, as an editorial writer, and after laboring ten weeks, he
left the paper and embarked in another business. Two years later he was
offered a favorable interest in the EVENING POST, a paper then published
in this city, which he accepted and retained until he died.
With Dr. Ray's connection with the TRIBUNE, and his manly,
straightforward, and vigorous editorial conduct during the Chicago riots,
the excitements of the Kansas war, the war of the rebellion, and all the
great events which culminated in the election of Abraham Lincoln to
the Presidency, the public are familiar. His writings were so sharp and
trenchant, so eloquently denunciatory of wrong and so searching in
criticism, that they were copied far and wide, and exerted a powerful
influence — always upon the side of the right, and did much to establish
its reputation as a fearless, outspoken journal. He wrote with an untiring
vigor and with a searching analysis which went down to the very heart
and core of the matter, whether he was exposing some iniquitous political
scheme or moral wrong, or was exhibiting some military official in the
light of his incompetency. There was not a conservative drop of blood
in his veins. He always expected, and demanded, progress, both political,
moral and humane. He never needed any urging in a radical direction;
but, on the other hand, his zeal sometimes needed restraint. He never
consulted policy, for he had no policy in his di&position. He never looked
at consequences when he believed himself right, for he was absolutely
fearless. When once settled upon a course, he would say to his associates :
'This is the right course, and we must pursue it to the end, regardless of
consequences.' He cared for no pecuniary injury as the result of advocating
an unpopular doctrine. When subscribers dropped off, as a consequence,
he would say : 'Let them go. We are right. They will all come back
in a few weeks, and bring others with them;' and his words were more
than once verified.
When Dr. Ray left the TRIBUNE in 1863, it was with the idea of
acquiring a fortune for his children, and giving them and their education
more personal attention than he could do while engaged in the pressing
demands of editorial duties. His speculations were at first very successful,
and he amassed a handsome competence. Shortly after, he married Julia
Clark, a daughter of Judge Lincoln Clark, for a long time a prominent
public man in Iowa, but then resident in Chicago, two daughters being
the result of this second union. Blessed with the deep and strong affec-
500 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
tions of his family, and enjoying financial prosperity, everything seemed
bright. About the time of this marriage he wisely concluded to settle
on his wife and children half his property, which, through trustees, was
invested in improved real estate in this city. With the remainder of his
means he embarked in new enterprises, which proved, in the common
decline of values, unsuccessful, and he resolved once more to return to
the editorial profession, in which he worked with his old energy and
vigor. His excessive labor in the exciting canvass, superinduced an
attack of brain fever, followed by many weeks of intense suffering and
utter mental and physical prostration. He at last recovered sufficiently
to go to Cleveland, where he received medical treatment. He then went
to Northampton, Massachusetts, where he remained for some time. Re-
turning to Chicago, he at once resumed his position on the POST as editor-
in-chief. He died September 24th, 1870."
"It would be useless," wrote George P. Upton, "for us to say anything
further of Dr. Ray as a journalist. The public knows how well he has
filled that difficult position during the past fifteen or more years in this
city; and his able and vigorous editorials have always been a mirror in
which the public could see the writer. It was impossible for the veriest
dullard to mistake the meaning of anything he wrote. In our professional
association with him, which extended over many years, we learned to
prize him as a man, and to hold him dear as a friend. He was not one
perhaps to attract numerous friendships, for he was brusque and impetuous
in his manner, and specially impatient of annoyance. But those who
knew him best, knew how genial 'he was at heart, how strong his affec-
tions were, and how almost faultless he was in critical taste. He was
intense in his likes and dislikes. He was bitter against an enemy, but he
could not do too much for a friend. We have seen him fairly crush
insincerity with an explosion of his wrath, and then turn and relieve the
wants of a traveling beggar, and give him kindly advice. He was the best
friend a young man commencing newspaper life could have, for the reason
that he was chary of praise and never slow at pointing out faults, and
suggesting the remedy. Perhaps the most striking feature of his char-
acter was his hatred of cant and sham. He recognized a hypocrite in-
stinctively, and he never stopped to select choice or elegant phrases
in exposing him. We cannot remember a man so plain-spoken in
denunciation of humbug or hypocrisy. He hit it with all his might, and
his might was immense. And yet, this Samson was full of humanity,
kindly courtesy, and noble, hearty manliness. With all his multifarious
duties, private and public, which were often very perplexing, he found
time to devote much attention to literature and art, and in these directions
his taste was fastidious, and his manner quick and resolved. He was as
impatient of sham in a book, in a painting, or in the music room, as he was
of a sham in life, and his criticism was almost always just, even though
it was excoriating. The class of men who cannot be politic enough to
compromise with hypocrisy is s*3 scarce that it is refreshing to recall this
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 5O1
trait in Dr. Ray's character. It made enemies, of course, but that was
of little account to him. The man who has no enemies must be all things
to all men. He was a hard worker, and in his prime was capable of an
immense amount of labor, for he was physically very strong. Few men
in the journalistic profession, indeed, have combined such power to labor,
such keen perceptions, such a nervous, trenchant style, and such manly
and vigorous grappling with private and public evils."
Charles L. Wilson was born and educated in Fail-field county, Con-
necticut. He came to Chicago in September, 1835, beginning his career
here as a clerk in a mercantile house, and subsequently serving in a similar
capacity at Joliet. In 1844 the EVENING JOURNAL was first issued as
a Whig campaign paper, advocating the election of Henry Clay to the
Presidency, Richard L. Wilson being its editor. After the election,
despite its adverse result, it was determined to continue the JOURNAL as
a permanent institution, and it has been published daily ever since, with-
out interruption. In 1845 Mr. Wilson was associated with his brother in
the editorial department of the paper, and in 1848, the latter having been
appointed postmaster by President Taylor, he — Charles L. — became
proprietor of the establishment.
Although not a graduate from any college, Mr. Wilson was a gentle-
man of literary and intellectual ability; a self-made man, emphatically ;
a sharp and ready reasoner, and as a writer of sarcastic repartee or
pointed paragraphs, had few equals. He rarely wrote elaborate editorials,
but dashed off an argument, an opinion, a retort, or a "squib," hurriedly
and briefly, but always with effect. When he fired a shot, it scarcely
ever failed to hit the mark. Some of the most effective political newspaper
articles of our past campaigns have been the short, pointed and conclusive
editorials from his pen. He delighted in nothing so much as in "shooting
folly as it flies," pricking political, editorial or theoretical puff-balls, and
exposing to public gaze the long ears of such animals as go about in the
guise of would-be lions.
The JOURNAL was the leading organ of the old Whig party in
Illinois, and advocated its principles and supported its candidates so long
as that organization was anywhere maintained. It entered the lists fear-
lessly against the order of "Know Nothings," which sprang into existence
at the demise of the Whig party, and almost single-handed, maintained
its position whilst that political tornado swept over the countiy.
In the formation of the Anti- Nebraska, or Republican party of the
State, Mr. Wilson was an active participant. He was a member of the con-
vention which met at Bloomington, in 1854, and with Abraham Lincoln,
Richard J. Oglesby, Elihu B. Washburne, and other prominent Whigs,
joined the Anti-Nebraska Democrats in the formation of a party which
has since been the governing power in the State and nation.
Mr. Wilson was also a member of the Republican State Convention
of 1858. Personally and politically attached to Mr. Lincoln, it was in
lhat convention that he offered a resolution, "that Abraham Lincoln was
502 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
its first, last and only choice for United States Senator in place of Stephen
A. Douglas," which was enthusiastically adopted. Although opposed to
the ideas of policy maintained by many influential Republicans, that
resolution induced Mr. Douglas to change the course which he had
previously marked out, and which had been approved even by leading
Republican journals in the East. When Mr. Douglas returned from
Washington, after the adjournment of Congress, in the Spring of 1858, his
friends gave him a public reception, on which occasion he made a some-
what elaborate speech, enunciating his political sentiments in reference to
slavery, and advocating his celebrated docrine of "popular sovereignty."
Whilst other friends advised a different course, Mr. Wilson urged Mr.
Lincoln to immediately reply to that speech, and afterward proposed that
he should challenge Mr. Douglas to a public discussion of the political
questions then at issue before the people. Mr. Lincoln adopted this sug-
gestion, and the memorable joint discussions that followed secured to him
a national reputation as one of the foremost statesmen in the country.
During its progress, Mr. Lincoln frequently communicated with Mr.
Wilson in regard to the details, of that exciting contest.
In the contest which followed for the nomination of a Republican
candidate for President, Mr. Wilson warmly advocated the claims of
William H. Seward, and espoused his cause in the columns of the JOURNAL.
His relations with Mr. Seward were personally and politically as intimate
as those with Mr. Lincoln, and regarding the former as the architect
of the great party and its acknowledged head, he considered the nomina-
tion due to him as a matter both of justice and policy. He, therefore,
did not hesitate to zealously urge Mr. Seward's nomination; but when
the choice of the convention fell upon Mr. Lincoln, though sorely dis-
appointed at the defeat of his life-long friend and political piototype,
on the same afternoon, in a brief editorial, he urged a hearty ratification
of the nomination, and did much at that time and during the canvass
toward breaking the force of the blow which the friends of Mr. Seward
had received. Although perhaps not generally known at that time, yet it
was through his influence that Mr. Seward afterward came to the West
to urge Mr. Lincoln's election.
In 1 86 1, after Mr. Lincoln's inauguration as President, among his
first foreign appointments was that of Mr. Wilson. The choice of the
Secretaryship of the Paris and London Legations was tendered him,
unsolicited by himself or his friends. He chose the latter. His appoint-
ment was promptly made, and unanimously confirmed by the Senate.
He discharged the arduous duties of that position for over three years
with signal acceptability.
Albert F. Dickinson, a resident of Chicago since 1854, and one of the
first members of the Board of Trade, died March, iSSi. Mr. Dickinson
was born in 1809, at Hawley, Berkshire county, Massachusetts, and was
of Quaker origin. In his youth he was a teacher. He first embarked
in business as agent, with headquarters at Curtissville, Massachusetts, for
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 503
a large cotton factory established in New York. Then he became post-
master, and attained distinction in several town offices, going at length to
Boston as a member of the legislature. In 1840 he made a flying visit
of inspection to the West, but returned, and was for over a decade engaged
in business in the East, first as the proprietor of a flouring mill in Cur-
tissville, then as owner of a grist mill in Albany, which burning in 1851,
he afterward went to Buffalo and formed a partnership with Chester
Hitchcock. Thus was he gradually following the current of enterprise
westward, and in 1854, leaving his family for a year in Buffalo, he came
and located in Chicago, establishing himself in the grain business, in
which he had since remained. He failed in 1857 with hosts of other
good men, having signed too freely for others, but he never made a com-
promise for long, and always paid his debts in full when given time. His
life was despaired of in 1872, when he suffered severely from inflamma-
tory rheumatism. In the few years preceding he had established a
growing seed business, which has grown until it occupies seven stores on
Kinzie and Michigan streets, taking second place to no other similar con-
cern in the city, and when thus ill he turned over the business to his son
Albert, his memory and eyesight having somewhat failed.
Buckner S. Morris was boVn on the nineteenth of A.ugust, 1800, in
Augusta, Kentucky. His father came originally from Delaware, whence
his eldest brother joined the Revolutionary Army, and fought from the
beginning of the war to its close. His mother was a member of the well
known Buckner family, formerly, it is believed, from Culpepper, Virginia.
Her father, Philip Buckner, was a captain in the army, which secured
the independence of these United States; he was one of the early settlers
of Kentucky, and was a member of the convention that framed the first
constitution of that State; his first settlement: was made where Louisville
now stands, from which he, with others, often repelled the attacks of Indians.
The education of the youth was limited to that obtained by atten-
dance at a private country school, previous to his tenth birthday. In
1824 he began the study of the law with T. J. Strat, in Cincinnati, Ohio,
and continued it at Augusta, Kentucky, under the tuition of Martin
Marshall, who was one of the best lawyers in that part of the State, and
a nephew of John J. Marshall, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court
of the ^United States. He remained under his instruction about two
years, before he commenced the practice of law. i
The practice of Mr. Morris was mainly in the counties of Bracken
and Pendleton in Kentucky, and occasionally in Brown and Clermom
counties, just across the river, in Ohio. He soon acquired considerable
business, which, however, did not entirely satisfy him, as all the more
important business went into the hands of the old practitioners at the bar.
He was elected a member of the legislature in 1829, and again in
1832. While there, he took an active part in favor of the bill for a con-
vention to do away with slavery in Kentucky. This bill passed the
House each session, but failed in the Senate, the last year by only one
504 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
vote. The plan proposed was to declare all colored children free, who
should be born after a certain day. In the Winter of 1832-3, the legis-
lature of Kentucky passed a law prohibiting the importation of slaves
into the State, except by heirship or devise. But the abolitionists of the
North became so rabid and dictatorial that a counter-current was created
against the South, and the plan was given up by its friends.
Mr. Morris came here in November, 1834, only one year after the
town of Chicago had been organized by an election, at which the total
number of votes polled was twenty-six. At the time of his arrival there
were only about thirty-seven houses in the whole town, including the
buildings occupied by the traders and agents of the American Fur Com-
pany, or its vendees which were located on the military reserve of sixty-two
acres, now called the Fort Dearborn Addition to -Chicago.
Mr. Morris immediately began the practice of law. In 1852 Hugh
T. Dickey resigned the office of Judge of the Seventh Judicial Circuit
Court of Illinois, and by the request of many members of the bar, Mr.
Morris consented to be a candidate for the office, and was elected. He
then gave up his extensive practice.
Judge Morris filled the office with great acceptability for some four
years, and was then tendered a re-election in such terms as left no doubt
that he could have been elected without opposition. But the work had
already told too severely upon his health, and he declined the honor.
The legal services of Judge Morris in this city, county and State
covered a wide range of research, but he was best known as an advocate
and lawyer. He was a large real estate owner at the commencement of
our unfortunate civil war.
Judge Morris was an old line Whig; he helped to defeat General
Jackson for President of the United States in 1824, and he opposed his
election in 1828 and 1832. The Judge opposed nullification and secession
in 1831-2, and approved Jackson's message against them when he was
a member of the legislature in Kentucky in 1832, by resolution in the
House. He denounced President Jackson's policy in destroying the United
States Bank and branches, and establishing State banks in their stead,
bringing financial ruin upon the country in 1837.
In the Spring of 1838 Judge Morris was elected mayor of Chicago,
being the second incumbent of the mayor's chair. At that time the
Illinois and Michigan Canal was dragging its slow length along, work
not being suspended, though the financial crisis of the preceding year
had plunged the State and country generally into deep embarrassment,
which ultimately necessitated the cessation of all works for public im-
provement. To add to the general affliction, a terrible fever broke out
among the men engaged on the canal, which usually proved fatal in
about three days from the time of the first attack. Nor was the mortal it v
confined to the laborers; many others died, among whom was a brother
of Sir James Hervey, one of the contractors on the canal. The sufferers
were brought into the city by wagon loads, and many left lying on the
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 505
streets to breathe their last. Mayor Morris did all in his power to relieve
them, spending three times his salary of six hundred dollars in the work.
Many lives were saved through his efforts and those of Dr. Betts, then
of Chicago. During the same year there was wide spread distress among
all classes, owing to the hard times, and many poor families arrived here
without a cent, and the mayor was enabled with the assistance of Trow-
bridge, Frink & Company, then running a line of stages out West, to
send these unfortunates forward to their destination. The administration
of Mayor Morris was rich in good work, and was long and gratefully
remembered by the many who were benefited by his efforts. He also,
during his term of office, accomplished many public improvements in the
city, borrowing money therefor of Messrs. Strachan & Scott, bankers,
with the aid of the Common Council.
Judge Morris was a candidate for Governor of Illinois in 1860, to
aid the Bell and Everett ticket for President and Vice-President of the
United States, and in his speeches he opposed the election of Lincoln and
Hamlin as they were abolitionists; and he opposed the election of
Breckenridge and Lane, because they wei'e secessionists and supported
the extension of slavery territory. He declared that every vote for either
the Lincoln or Breckenridge ticket was for civil war and for the sheddin"-
o o
of blood; and that bankruptcy and ruin would inevitably follow, and
possibly the worst military despotism that ever disgraced any nation on
earth.
One of the most disagreeable experiences in the life of Judge Morris
occurred during the late war. For the first few months of the struggle
there was little trouble at the North. But when the emancipation policy
was decided upon by the government, the Democratic party expressed
dissatisfaction with it as a war measure, and forthwith there was a division
in the camp. Prominent Democrats were suspected of disloyalty, espe-
cially those who had been born in the Southern States, and party feeling
ran so high that at several times it threatened to culminate in a war at
home. Judge Morris was one of the suspected ones, though he never
by word or deed gave any one reason to believe that he was disloyal to
the constitution and laws of the land, for he was known to be a strong
supporter of both. He did, however, act as he believed became a con-
sistent, free American citizen, approving of that which he thought was
right, and disapproving of what he deemed wrong in principle and practice.
On the sixth of November, 1864, at about two o'clock in the morn-
ing, his house was surrounded by sixty soldiers, and he was taken to
Colonel Sweet's headquarters at Camp Douglas. Soon after a stranger
visited him, saying that the government did not wish to punish him, but
desired to make a witness of him, although there was evidence sufficient
to hang him. He was desired to prove that a plot existed to liberate the
Confederate prisoners at Camp Douglas, and burn and destroy the city.
The Judge replied that no such plot existed, to his knowledge or belief,
and it was impossible for him to prove the existence of that which he
506 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
did not know existed. The stranger then left, saying he would leave the
Judge to his fate. He was afterward proven to be a Mr. Langhorne,
formerly of the Confederate army, and then a Federal spy. The Judge
was placed in the well remembered White Oaks prison at Camp Douglas,
but in a few weeks, through the aid of a reliable friend, he was removed
to better quarters.
About Christmas time Judge Morris and his wife were removed to
Cincinnati, where resided the Judge Advocate who was to prosecute
them before the Court Martial, which was to meet there early in January,
1865. The Judge was four months on trial, with seven others, though
the evidence given for and against him, if he had been tried alone, would
not have occupied a week's time. The trial closed in the latter part of
April, and he was acquitted on each and all of the charges; he was dis-
charged from prison and stepped forth again a free man. Even his
accusers had nothing to say against him, and all admired the calmness,
and constancy with which he had endured his long confinement.
On being released, Judge Morris proceeded at once to Kentucky,
whither his wife had been removed, then returned to Chicago, where he
visited General B. J. Sweet, the Post-Commandant at Camp Douglas,
and procured from him a letter to Major-General Hooker, recommending
that Mrs. Morris be released and discharged. The necessary order was
given after some little delay, and the pair returned to their home in Chi-
cago, after an imprisonment of six months, the health of both having
been much injured.
W. F. Coolbaugh was born in Pike county, Pennsylvania, July ist»
1821. His father was a farmer. The advantages which he enjoyed for
education were limited in the extreme. As soon as he was old enough
to be of any service on the farm, he was kept at home all the year round,
except during the Winter months, and at the age of twelve his school
days ended entirely. The only branches taught in the schools of that
day, at least in that region, were reading, writing, spelling, arithmetic,
and in rare cases, grammar. It is a circumstance worthy of note, that
Mr. Coolbatigh's last teacher was Ex-Lieutenant-Governor Bross.
At the age of fifteen, with his limited education, and neither friends
nor money to help him on, Mr. Coolbaugh resolved to leave the paternal
roof, and seek his fortune in Philadelphia. Tiie situation which opened
to him, and which he accepted, was that of assistant porter in a large
wholesale dry goods house. Thus far providence had not worn for him
a smiling face. Born in a dreary and isolated locality, and denied good
school advantages, he left home to sweep floors and run errands. Butv
nothing daunted by the disadvantages of his position, at the very foot
of the ladder, the lad entered upon and continued his new labors with all
cheerfulness, steadily working his way up until, at the age of eighteen, he
was made the confidential clerk. Soon after, the firm, one of the most;
extensive in the city, sent him to the far West and Southwest, where he
was constantly employed in its business until he became of age. He then
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 507
went into business for himself. During the three years that Mr. Cool-
baugh had the entire charge of the Western business of the house to
which he belonged, the aggregate of his remittances exceeded one million
dollars. He was obliged to travel a great deal, and although that was
less than forty years ago, the traveling was principally done on horseback.
It appears from the journal kept by him during that time, that one horse
bore him more than nine thousand miles. The modern "drummer'*
knows little of the hardships of the commercial traveler in those days.
When, in 1842, Mr. Coolbaugh concluded to be his own employer,
he settled at Burlington, Iowa. For eight years he was a merchant in
that city. The prosperity which crowned his efforts to acquire wealth
may be inferred from the fact that, in 1850, he retired from the mercantile
business and became a banker. The banking-house of Coolbaugh &
Brooks was organized at that time.
At this period we find Mr. Coolbaugh not only a leader among the
business and moneyed men of Iowa, but also in the front rank as a
politician. With the restlessness of mingled youth and manhood, he
could not resist the temptation to enter the arena of politics; and it was
well that he did so, for Iowa is not a little indebted to his rare practical
wisdom for judicious legislation in the critical period of its infancy. The
first service which he rendered the State was in the capacity of Loan
Agent, a position to which, much to his surprise, the first General
Assembly of his adopted State appointed him. In that capacity he
negotiated the first loan Iowa ever made, and caused the issue of its first
bonds. Mr. Coolbaugh was a Democrat of the Douglas school, possessin-j-
the warm personal friendship of that great man. In the Baltimore Con-
vention of 1852, he did his best to secure his nomination, voting for him
forty-nine times. For eight years he was a member of the Iowa Senate,
when Senator Grimes, also a citizen of Burlington, was elected Governor,
and Mr. Coolbaugh was the unanimous choice of his party for the United
States Senate, a position for which his great financial ability and unpur-
chasable integrity admirably fitted him. But, fortunately, as he thought,
after he was entirely cured of the political lever, his friends were the
minority in the Assembly. By a small majority, Professor Harlan was
chosen. Mr. Coolbaugh was well known throughout the State, and
was beginning to have a national reputation, while Mr. Harlan had never
held an office, and was only known to a few, and by them not thought
of in connection with politics. Twenty years reversed the order. A:
the expiration of that time, Mr. Harlan was wholly given to state-craft,
while Mr. Coolbaugh's name was rarely heard in political circles. His
reputation was, indeed, national, but many who knew him well will be
surprised to learn that he was ever a politician. In Iowa, however, his
political fame still lingers. During the gubernatorial campaign of 1867,
his opinion in regard to the fitness of one of the candidates for that office
was widely circulated, which shows that he continued to be retained
among the oracles in the politics of the Hawkeye State.
5°S CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
The political services of Mr. Coolbaugh foreshadowed his future
course. While he was a member of the Senate, and on the Finance Com-
mittee, the State Bank of Iowa was chartered. To the perfection of its
plan he gave his special attention. Among the provisions of the charter
to the parentage of which he might justly lay claim, were those pro-
hibiting the paying of interest on deposits, making any loans on real
estate security, or allowing loans to run longer than four months. It was
acknowledged by competent and disinterested judges, that the Bank of
Iowa had a model charter. A more successful bank never was organized.
The State had good reason to be proud of it, and Mr. Coolbaugh of his
connection with it. While this may be set down as the most deserving
feature of his political record, it may be mentioned, in passing, that he
declared that the part he took in the Democratic National Convention
held in Cincinnati in 1856, and which nominated Buchanan and Brecken-
ridge for the Presidency and Vice-Presidency, was one of the greatest
and most deeply deplored mistakes of his life. He was chairman of the
Iowa delegation at that time, and in the following campaign was a vigor-
ous worker.
When the rebellion came, Mr. Coolbaugh, in common with thousands
of other Democrats, at once gave Mr. Lincoln and the government his
most hearty support. At the time the order came for seventy-five thou-
sand men, the treasury of Iowa was empty. The firm of Coolbaugh &
Brooks at once telegraphed to the Governor of the State to draw on them
for whatever money he might need in fitting out troops in compliance
with the requisition of the general government. This was only a speci-
men of the entire devotion to the Union which marked Mr. Coolbaugh's
course through the war. Liberal with his money, he always sunk the
partisan in the patriot, and in every possible way helped in the suppression
of treason.
In the Spring of 1862, he removed from Burlington to Chicago.
Here he established the banking house of W. F. Coolbaugh & Com-
pany. The primary object of this firm was to represent the State Bank
of Iowa, which it did until that institution ceased to have an existence.
In February, 1865, this banking house became the Union National
Bank of Chicago, with Mr. Coolbaugh as its president. To give some
idea of the business of which he was at the head, it may be added that,
taking the eleventh quarterly statement of the Union National Bank,
dated October 7th, 1867, for a guide, it was the most extensive banking
house in the Northwest. Its deposits footed up three million, one hun-
dred and seventy-eight thousand, forty-two dollars and twelve cents; its
cash means, one million, nine hundred and sixty thousand, seven hundred
and twenty dollars and sixty-two cents; its total assets, four million, two
hundred and thirty-eight thousand, two hundred and twenty-three dollars
and seventy-six cents.
On the organization of the Chicago Clearing House, Mr. Coolbaugh
was chosen the president. Upon the establishment of the National
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 509
Bankers' Association for the West and Southwest, he was, at a conven-
tion held in this city in September, 1866, chosen president of that also.
These positions show that he was regarded as having no superior, if he
had an equal among our bankers. Mr. Coolbaugh died in 1877.
Norman B. Judd was born at Rome, Oneida county, New York,
January loth, 1815. His father, Norman Judd, a potter by trade, was
born in Goshen, Connecticut, and his mother was of the Vanderhuyden
family, of Troy, New York.
Young Judd received the usual rudiments of education at the common
schools, and finished his school days at Grosvenor's High School at
Rome. After trying various occupations, he finally found the profession
for which he was specially qualified — that of the law. He at first entered
the office of Wheeler Barnes, at Rome, as a student, and afterward pur-
sued his studies in the offices of Stryker & Gay and Foster & Stryker, in
the same town; and in the Spring of 1836, having just attained his
majority, was admitted to the bar.
In the meantime, Judge Caton, his old friend and schoolmate, had
removed to the West and settled in Chicago. He wrote to Mr. Judd,
requesting him to come to the new city, which had already begun to
attract attention. He acceded to this request, and arrived in Chicago in
November, 1836, and at once entered into a partnership with the future
Chief Justice. He soon obtained a prominent position at the bar, and in
the year 1837, was elected the first City Attorney, a position which he
filled successfully for two years.
In 1838, Mr. Judd's connection with Judge Caton was dissolved, and
he immediately entered into partnership with J. Y. Scammon; they
remained together in successful practice for nine years. During the same
year he was appointed a Notary Public, and in 1842 he was elected alder-
man of the first ward of the city. In 1844 he was elected to the State
Senate on the Democratic ticket, to fill a vacancy occasioned by the
resignation of Samuel Hoard. He was re-elected to the same position in
1846, and — the new constitution cutting off half his term — again in 1848.
His career in the Senate was so satisfactory in the advancement of the
best interests of Chicago, that he was returned in 1852 and again in 1856,
At the election in the Autumn of 1853, the repeal of the Missouri
Compromise was agitating the whole country. The legislature of Illinois
of that year was made up of three parties, Democrats, Whigs and Anti-
Nebraska Democrats. The General Assembly, in joint session, was
composed of one hundred members. On its assembling, the full strength
of the Anti-Nebraska party was eight, three Senators and five Repre-
sentatives. To this party Mr. Judd belonged. Before the election for
Senator came on, that small minority was still further reduced by the
loss of three of its members. Judge Trumbull was the candidate of
the Anti-Nebraska Democrats, who could muster five votes. After sev-
eral ballots, the Democrats dropped General Shields, their candidate, and
cast their votes for Governor Matteson.. On the nineteenth ballot the
510 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
friends of Mr. Lincoln, the Whig candidate, at his request, dropped his
name, and joining the Anti-Nebraska Democrats, elected Judge T rum-
bull as Senator.
The action of the small minority in this election caused an intense
excitement among the Whig politicians throughout the State, and when
a candidate for nomination by the Republican party to the office of Gov-
ernor, in 1860, Mr. Judd's opponents charged him with treachery and bad
faith toward Mr. Lincoln. These charges were so persistently pressed,
that Messrs. Dole, Hubbnrd and Kinzie, old friends of Mr. Lincoln,
addressed a note to him, inquiring into their truth. Mr. Lincoln's reply
expressed the utmost confidence in Mr. Judd's honesty, honor and integrity,
and acquitted him completely from the charge of treachery.
In 1856 Mr. Judd was a member of the famous Bloomington Con-
vention, that organized the Republican party. His prominence in the
convention placed him on the Committee of Resolutions, and secured for
him the appointment of Chairman of the State Central Committee, a
position which he held until his departure for Europe, in 1861. He was
prominently engaged in the Philadelphia Convention that nominated John
C. Fremont, and also in the Chicago Convention which nominated Abra-
ham Lincoln for the Presidency.
Mr. Judd was one of the party accompanying Mr. Lincoln to Wash-
ington to assume the duties of President. A conspiracy was discovered
to assassinate the President elect on his passage through Baltimore, and
Mr. Judd's connection with the counter plans to preserve Mr. Lincoln's
life was of grave importance. To his sagacity was due, in a great meas-
ure, Mr. Lincoln's safe arrival at Washington.
On the fourth of March, 1861, Mr. Lincoln nominated his cabinet,
and the first nomination after its confirmation, was that of Norman B.
Judd, as Minister to Berlin, the most polished court of Europe. It is
somewhat significant that Mr. Johnson, when he took the place of his
lamented predecessor, commenced his removals from office by recalling
Mr. Judd, who had been the first one appointed by Mr. Lincoln. On
Mr. Judd's return from Europe, the people determined to send him to
Congress, and being nominated by the Republican party, after a sharp
contest with John Wentworth, the Democratic candidate, he was elected.
Mr. Judd's cai'eer as a lawyer and business man was one of great
diligence, and was rewarded with more than an ordinary share of success.
In 1847, after his dissolution with Mi'. Scammon, he formed a co-partner-
ship with John M. Wilson, which continued until the tatter's elevation
to the bench. About the close of this partnership, the firm was largely
employed in railroad practice, and from that time until he left for Europe,
Mr. Judd's attention was exclusively given to that branch of the law.
He was the attorney of numerous railroad companies, director of not
a few, and president of one — the Peoria & Bureau Valley road.
As a politician, Mr. Judd was almost invariably successful, chiefly
owing to his remarkable executive ability. As a public servant he was
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 511
always faithful, conscientious in the discharge of duty, true to liberty and
without reproach. Mr. Judd died in 1880.
We thus close a chapter which will he read with interest by those
who sufficiently admire Chicago to remember with gratitude those who
were among her pioneers or even later settlers, but who did their work
and now sleep in honored graves. These names, together with many that
we have not space to notice, and those that are mentioned in other parts
of this volume, make a brilliant galaxy, which the proudest community
that ever has existed or ever will exist, might be proud to own. Chicago
is. fortunate in having such names to adorn her monuments and add
brilliancy to her glowing record.
CHAPTER XLII.
CHICAGO MEMORIAL BUILDING.
On the evening of March 26th, 1881, Central Music Hall was crowded
with substantial citizens gathered for the purpose of inaugurating a move-
ment to erect a suitable building to commemorate the great fire, or rather
the vast charity of the world, as exhibited at that unfortunate time. N. K.
Fairbank called the meeting to order, and said : "You are aware that
a meeting was called some time ago to make some arrangements in rela-
tion to celebrating or commemorating the events connected with the fire.
That meeting was held at the Palmer House, and after considerable con-
sultation, a plan was agreed upon to call a general meeting at this place
to organize a popular subscription for the erection of a public library and
fine art academy and art museum. A committee was appointed to organ-
ize this meeting, of which I was the chairman. We invited his Honor,
Mayor Harrison, to preside at this meeting, and I have the pleasure now
of introducing Mr. Harrison as chairman of the meeting."
Mayor Harrison said: "Mr. Fairbank has stated to you the origin
of this movement. A few gentlemen collected together at the Palmer
House thought that there should be some celebration on the coming tenth
anniversary of the fire; that means should be adopted to commemorate,
not the fire, but that grand charity which the world showed to Chicago
in the moment of her dire distress. A committee was formed at the last
meeting, at which I myself was present, to get up a plan, to devise ways
and means; but there crept into the press a mistaken idea as to the object
of the organization, and it was thought by some that there was going to
be a circus. Commemorate the fire! That was never the understanding.
Before the committee had come to a conclusion it was determined to
adjourn over, to meet here, and have a popular assemblage, to have a large
number discuss the question, and start the movement in such a way that
there should be no lagging in the future.
What is it that we are supposed to want to commemorate? Permit
me for a few moments to call your attention to the condition of Chicago
on the eighth of October next, ten years ago. On a little spot here on
Lake Michigan that forty years before was a morass, with only a few
acres of it dry enough to support a little fortress, with a captain and
a company of soldiers to protect it from the Indians, that little spot had
grown into a mighty city, a young giant, whose name was known
throughout the world; and its people known for their energy and enter-
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 513
prise. Its trade permeated the United States. Fourteen railroads centered
here. A little sluggish stream, which forty years before had been the
bathing place of the musk rat, and on whose surface nothing was ever
heard louder than the noise made by the paddle which the red man used
in propelling his canoe; that little stream was bearing upon its bosom
a commerce greater than London had at the beginning of this century,
and far greater than far-famed Tiber ever had when Rome was in her
greatest glory. About nine o'clock in the evening there was an alarm
of fire. Ere morning ten acres of Chicago west of the river were in
ashes, and we were beginning to boast as Chicago boasts whenever she
can, that we were going to be renowned in history for a grand conflagra-
tion. Our people were wearied by watching that conflagration. Our
firemen were worn out in endeavoring to extinguish it. They had suc-
ceeded. Our policemen were broken down. At ten o'clock the bells
again sounded for fire.
I remember it well. I looked out of my window; looked to the
east; I saw it; it was off to the windward of that tract that had been
swept away the night before. I thought it could not be much. I went
to bed. At twelve o'clock at night there was a tremendous drumming at
my front door. I opened the door, and there before me the very heavens
were ablaze. I looked to the east, and for miles it was like looking into
' O
the mouth of a burning furnace. I told those in the house there was
a conflagration. I came down into town. I endeavored to reach my
office on the corner of Randolph and Dearborn streets. I came up Lake
street. As far as I could see up and down Lake street there was not one
single spark of fire. I reached half way between Dearborn and Clark-
streets when there fell upon me as if a very rain of hot air. I ran back,,
•and when I had reached two hundred feet away and looked back, every
sign along Lake street was aflame. From that time until morning there
was one dread roar. The winds howled, buildings tumbled, flames-
crackled, edifices fell like the thundering of cannon or the bursting of
meteors. It was such a scene as one can imagine Dante could see when,
he beheld the Inferno of his imagination. For hours the flames swept
on, and there was no power to check them. It burned, burned, burned,
until there was nothing more to burn. Who can tell the terrors of that
night? Many a one was carried to his last home, and without a record
being left even of ashes to give his name. It is said that probably a thou-
sand were destroyed in that fell swoop. One hundred and eighty million,*
of dollars were swept away. Thousands and thousands of men who had
been in moderately comfortable circumstances the day before found them-
selves in abject poverty. Hundreds, aye, thousands, who had been before:
that time reveling in wealth had not wherewith to buy bread, or a spot
whereon to lay their heads. I remember meeting one man who was
a wealthy one, supposed to be a millionaire. In his agony he said to me:
<I have not one cent left on earth; every piece of property I had is swept
-away.' -There -Wiis a feeling of despair throughout this community.
5H CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITTZKNS.
agonized despair, when click, click, click, along the wire came the news
that the world was coming- to our rescue with charity, and money was
coming, and food for our people. From that moment up hope came to
us, and from that moment regenerated Chicago knew no such thing as
faltering, and she has gone on until this is the Queen City of the lakes.
It is that charity that we are met to-night to endeavor to commemorate.
Let me recount to you a little anecdote that happened two days after
the fire. I was driving through the burned district; I met a tenant of
one of my principals, who a few months before had had a fine building
burned up. His face was so black with soot that I did not recognize him.
I said to him: 'Stephen, you are burned out at last; what are you going
to do?' He replied: 'Mr. Harrison, when that fire came over us I felt
that all hope was gone; I sat down expecting to spend my last days in
poverty, but' — and the tears trickled down his cheeks — 'when the news
came how the world was sending her donations to Chicago it gave me
pluck, and I am digging out the brick from my cellar; I am going to
commence building.' That was the feeling that this generosity of the
world developed in Chicago, and we are met here to commemorate it, to
fasten it in the hearts, not only of ourselves, but of all time to come, so
that it will ever l>e remembered that Chicago suffered as no city ever
suffered, and that no city on the face of the globe was ever more befriended
by mankind.
What are we to do? All of the millions of dollars that poured into
the lap of Chicago, has been spent and gone. The monument of it has
been swept away, except that monument that lives in the Chicagoan's
heart. That lives there, and will live fresh as long as we live who are
contemporary. But there is one little thing left. I said all was gone;
I made one mistake. A few thousand volumes of books donated by Tom
Hughes and British authors are here in a combustible building, the only
thing that is left, a tangible, palpable memorial of the world's benefit to us.
It was my friend Mr. Allen, a member of the Board of Inspectors
of the Library, who conceived the idea that this should be the nucleus
of a vast library, and around it should be thrown a vast building that
should be a monument of the world's generosity to us. He published in
the papers letters setting forth his plan. At once everybody conceded
that it was an admirable plan. Now permit me to say what we think
will be the true thing to be done. Mr. Allen's plan is, and it is a good
one, to have a subscription list sent through every ward, along every
street, every block, and to every house in the city of Chicago, to get sub-
scriptions. Take from the millionaire his thousands; from the moderate
man his hundreds; take from the school-boy his dime, and he believes that
we can get enough to erect a magnificent building. Then what should
that building be? It should be fire-proof; it should be ornamental. It
should be a library, and if there be means enough, an art museum. But
there should be one other thing that I want to present to you. There
should be in that building a large room with a beautiful and vaulted ceil-
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 515
ing that should be called the Memorial Hall. Its architectural style
should be such that on its walls can be a commemoration of the fire. It
will not be decorated to-day, or to-morrow, or next year, but as men of
genius in after years, excited by the recollections or the traditions of the
fire, may paint works of art to adorn its walls and to make it a fire com-
memoration. In that room there should be splendidly bound volumes
of heavy paper, on which the name of each subscriber, if it be so little
as one cent which some poor school-boy may give, may be recorded. Let
the name of every person that subscribed be there, if it swallows up the
entire census of Chicago. Let them be put there in alphabetical order
or under heads, and thus go down to the latest generation as the men,
women and children who built this monument. In that room there should
be relics of the fire, all that we can get, properly arranged, and every single
dispatch and letter, whether written by public or by private individuals,
by cities or by corporations, to the city of Chicago, or to corporations or
individuals in Chicago, tendering help or presenting means. Those let-
ters should be there left as a memorial to be kept fresh forever of the
people who donated to us these magnificent gifts. A clerk should be
employed whose business it would be to copy off these dispatches — we
have got the most of them left — copy them so that in after years people
coming from foreign countries may look over them and find a dispatch
that they wrote to Chicago making a donation.
Here let me call your attention to one fact that happened in my
experience. When sitting at the table d' hote in Germany some one
found I was from Chicago, and came up to me saying: 'You are from
Chicago?' 'Yes.' 'I have got an interest in that town.' I looked up to
him, supposing he was going to consult me as to how his real estate was
Valued, but he said: 'I sent fifty marks to Chicago after the fire; I have
got an interest in that city.' Thousands of people throughout the world
sent their money and they have an interest in our city. We want to
commemorate those things."
E. G. Asay spoke as follows: "I had no idea that I should be put
forward to make the first shot. I was not here at the time of the fire, and
therefore cannot speak of that. I did not see much of the results of the
fire until the new Chicago had almost been born. I will, therefore, speak
simply of that question which, perhaps, is nearest the heart of us all at
this moment — the proposed Memorial Building — the outpouring of the
gratitude of our people in a sane form. I do not come to speak to you
of a gigantic enterprise; the land is full of these; but I come to speak
simply in favor of doing that thing which is better than the gift of bread
to men able to earn their own bread. It does not seem to me that in this
period of our history we are too much given to belief in that dogma
which was loosely uttered long years since, it is said, by Mr. Beecher, that
there is more gospel in a loaf of bread than in intellectual things. I do
not believe that it is charity, nor do you, to give a loaf to a man who i,
able to work for his bread. Nor is it charity to afford a place of shelter
5J6 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
to a woman who can earn a place of shelter for herself. The real gospel
that this age demands is this: Such instruction and help as will enable
the getter of that help and instruction to make a better living for himself
and better surroundings for those he is interested in.
Now you can do this in many ways. You may furnish employment,
you may furnish education, you may furnish means of culture. You may
take the rough-handed mechanic, and make an artisan of him. You
may take the sign-dauber, and make an artist of him. You may take the
rough maker and worker in metals, and you may make of him a Vernet,
and he will produce you things of beauty. But before you do this you
must give him the means of culture. And he can only have the means
of self-culture when you give him the opportunity of contact with things
that produce culture. You cannot make an artist by telling him how to
handle a brush; but you may show him what the brush has done, and
his own heart will find out the mode of handling the brush to produce
the result; his own brain will drive him forward. I speak of this topic
simply for this purpose: A city does not consist altogether in the number
of its houses, in the number of its people. It is something more than
this, something grander than this, something greater than this. Look
back upon all the past. What remains of the days that have been buried
in their tombs? It is the great works of art, of culture, that men have
erected which remain behind. The builders' names are buried and gone;
the buildings tower up to-day. Men cross oceans. Men go through
perils that they may but once gaze upon those remains of the past. And
why? They ai'e the things that build up cities — make cities attractive.
In asking you to-night to join with others in building a grand memo-
rial hall — a grand memorial building — we ask you to give to this community
simply this: A paying investment — something that will elevate mankind
and womankind; that will give them the opportunity of contact with
instructive things. What can you do better than this as a mere monev
investment? If no other or higher motive is in view, what better can
you do than this? What will the men of your own generation and of
the coming one thank you for? For this, and for this more than anything
else that you can give them.
The chairman has told you that he wants a grand memorial hall.
That is highly proper; but give us a home for the library! — a receptacle
for books, where the workingman, after his hours of labor are over, can
go, get a volume, take it home and read it to his family. Give us that
first, and then give us a home for the school of the workingmen. Give
us a place where workingmen can go and receive culture. That is the
kind of Socialism Jesus of Nazareth taught. That is the kind of Socialism
that will win in this world to-day. That is the Socialism that will make
the men immortal in the hearts of those who receive it from generation
to generation at their hands.
Then we want something higher than this, again. Give them their
books to read. Give them their schools to learn. When you have done
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 5X7
this, let us have in this same memorial building other means of culture.
I like that idea of a grand art institution connected with it. And that
means very much. Thank God we have one place in this community
exactly adapted to the purpose. Nothing so beautiful, nothing so well
adapted as our lake front, about which so much talk has been had. It is
a good breathing spot. It will furnish breath to the city. It will not
hurt it in the least if the airs and breezes of the lake come across a grand
building devoted to education, to art, to mechanics — a place of higher
culture, and, as the chairman has very aptly said, let us have it fireproof,
too.
One single word, and I guess the balance of my five minutes will
be more than exhausted. And it is simply this: I do not ask you people
of Chicago, as I told you in the outset, to do a charitable act. I ask you
simply to make money for yourselves in this. You cannot make a better
business investment than this. It will bring more money into your
pockets. It will bring more money into your community. It will bring
more money into your houses, into your workshops, into your storehouses,
into your warehouses, than any other scheme — I will venture my life for
the stake — that you can enter upon. Why, the Central Park of New
York has been at once the greatest means of culture and the greatest
means of profit to the city of New York. And so it is with everything
of this kind. The Grand Opera House in New York has drawn thou-
sands of people, from the very Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic, that
they might enjoy the singing there. And so you might run the gauntlet
of these grand enterprises that have been set on foot in this country.
And so I tell you here, every brick that you put in the foundation of this
building is a golden brick; every stone that you put in the foundation is
of more than diamond value as a mere money transaction to the city
of Chicago. It will do more. Such a building as this alone would do
more to build up the city of Chicago than the coming of five grand mer-
chants from the East to the West. Then I ask you simply to-night to
join in this enterprise with the rest to do the thing that your own hearts
ought to ask, that your own hearts do ask, and that your own hearts are
yearning for."
Bishop McLaren followed, and spoke as follows: "To me the chief
significance of this occasion is the fact that, in a community young, fresh,
jubilant and triumphant in developing the material resources of this
Western world, the memorial of our great calamity takes the shape of an
intellectual development. It seems to say: Mind is above matter. It
seems to say: There is something higher in life than the acquisition of
money ; or, in other words, that money is not the true wealth. It reveals
the prospect that, in the secondary stage of our growth as one of the great
cities of the world, we propose to make progress in the cultivation of the
intellectual powers and of the graces and humanities that shall lift us
above the plane of a merely material prosperity. This, I say, is to me
the radiant thought to-night.
518 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
It has further occurred to me that this particular form of memorial
is one which shall enable us as a community to perform a duty which we
owe in two directions.
This leads me first to remark that, notwithstanding the individualizing
tendencies of our time, we are all in some sense members one of another.
We cannot escape corporate relations. Every individual belongs to and
is a constituent element in the past and in the future; and what is true
of the individual is true of the community. Hence we are involved in
duties that have reference both to the past and to the future.
Now, it seems to me that in no way can we discharge our obligations
to the past more handsomely than by sedulously treasuring its literature,
with all care and at any outlay. It is only in its literature that the thought
of the past really survives. The oldest things of our era to-day are the
manuscripts of the earliest centuries, and they are as young now as when
they were written. Temples crumble to ruin; defaced hieroglyphs tell only
a partial tale; the great pyramid that defies time has no tongue to tell its
own story with infallible precision. But a book talks to you in just the
same tones and with exactly the same language with which it addressed
those who first gazed upon its pages. Even the natural world, whose
hills we call everlasting, and whose little brooks1 Tennyson makes say — •
For men may come and men may go,
But I go on forever,
—even the natural world suffers great changes of expression and fails to
keep its own record correctly; but books if preserved at all are preserved
in their integrity and completeness. The past writes itself down in his-
tory, fiction, poem, play and treatise, thus perpetuating and handing itself
over to its successors; and we must see to it that that past, to which we
owe so much, is rendered immortal.
But we must avoid a narrow and selfish idea of our conservative
work. Not for ourselves only, but for them that come after, must we
labor. The granite and marble which we put into our cemeteries transmit
only memories that like fleeting shadows, shall soon pass away. But in
gathering and handing down to the future a great treasure-house of litera-
ture and art, we bequeath a heritage at once priceless and endearing.
When the Caliph Omar, if the story is true, burned the Alexandrian
Library, in the name of Mohammedan fanaticism, he inflicted a calamity
not only on contemporary civilization, but on all time. We in Chicago
are poorer to-day for that loss. What treasures of thought and history
perished there! How many insoluble problems in every department of
human affairs were created by the destruction of testimony in that baleful
vandalism!
I want to see a massive edifice built here that shall become the pride
of the land, in which, by every contrivance of art, the ever-increasing
store of books and pictures shall be assured to the generations that are to
people this continent in the ages to come.
Let us write a policy of insurance in stone, brass, iron and steel, that
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 519
shall prevent loss rather than compensate for it; and the Chicagoan
of 1981 will have it to say of us: 'We know of the great fire of an hun-
dred and ten years ago, not by memory of the material losses that almost
crushed the men of that day, but by the foresight that prompted them
and the unconquerable energy that enabled them to bequeath to us this
pantheon of intellectual and moral splendor.' "
Thomas Hoyne was then introduced, and said : "The eighth and ninth
days of October, 1871, will ever be clays to be remembered in the annals
of this city. They were days of great destruction, but they were also
days of a creation.
The great fire destroyed a city of thirty years' standing, gradually
raising itself from a frontier post in the wilderness to accommodate the
trade of a few scattered thousands of people. But out of the fire has
come a new city, demanded by the exigencies of a rising empire, a trade
center of commerce, where millions instead of thousands are to exchange
the products of the globe in the near future.
The fire also destroyed many private collections of literary and
artistic treasures, and burned down three public libraries. But out of the
fire came the new foundation of our 'free public library.'
It certainly was a happy inspiration of the gentlemen having in
charge the subject of this proposed anniversary of the great fire, that they
should have hit upon the end of this decade to adopt this library as the
object of a proposed memorial building in which to perpetuate, preserve
and distribute its blessings. While in itself no greater agency of our
culture can be established than the literature it will contain, the building
to be erected will mark the triumphs which under the favor of Providence
Chicago has achieved. If sublime energy and courage in a people,
brought as they were face to face with the terrors of one of the greatest
calamities which ever befell a city, ever deserved a monument, the whole
demeanor and manliness of the Chicago people under that disaster calls
for a trophy, crowned as it will be by the applause of mankind!
It is, however, not to be forgotten that the instantaneous and universal
sympathy of mankind was called into action by the terrible nature of the
calamity. The extent and substantial nature of that sympathy never had
a parallel in the whole history of human misfortunes! Millions of dollars
in money and other millions in substantial aid came to the city from every
corner of the world.
And at last, when our people themselves protested that all our material
needs were satisfied, that all our naked were clad, and our hungry had
been fed, then went forth the appeal on behalf of our intellectual needs.
Then it was that Thomas Hughes, of London, or Tom Brown, of Oxford,
thrilled the hearts and wet with tears the eyes of our people in that dread
Winter of the burning ruins of prostrate homes and humbled fortunes,
by an appeal to all authors and publishers, to happy owners of full libraries
in Great Britain, to send contributions of their literary works as a token
of kinship and a mark of sympathy for the formation of a free public
'520 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
library in Chicago. The appeal was promptly answered. Thousands
of volumes were collected and came pouring in, at the Crystal Palace,
near London, before we began to move in Chicago.
And among the collections which came immediately to hand and are
now in the library, were a subscription of the British Patent-Office
Reports, some four thousand volumes, which are only sent out to other
countries on very strict conditions where large libraries are established
in the principal seats of population. We had sent us invaluable contribu-
tions from the British Museum. The University of Oxford sent her
magnificent collection. The great statesmen, Gladstone, Disraeli, Bright,
Justin McCarthy and others, and also the works of living authors — such
as Carlvle and Stuart Mill, in all which were written their autographs,
which remain with the volumes, a treasured legacy of their kindness for
generations to come. The English government, beside the Patent-Office
Reports, sent one hundred and eighty-two volumes of the Calendar State
papers, and one hundred and twelve volumes of the chronicles and
memorials of the earliest times. And to crown all, the Queen herself
sent in her autograph upon a volume of the life of the Prince Consort.
We had also to acknowledge contributions from Scotland, Ireland,
France and Germany, though, in speaking of England, we include the
sister islands of Ireland and Scotland as well. About seven thousand
volumes were I'eceived in the first months of the year 1872, all inscribed
on the fly-pages, next the title of the book, that they are sent as a 'mark
of sympathy' to Chicago for the new free library.
Now, it will be understood that, in view of such facts, a question
of the very highest moral obligation arises, and it should not be over-
looked! Can this city or its citizens assume such a trust in the interests
of mankind and our municipal civilization, and then neglect or violate
the sacred pledge or conditions upon which it was assumed?
The pride, good faith, and public honor of every citizen would scorn
an imputation of such a failure! It is, therefore, the public sentiment of
a sound morality which is moving our community to give this library,
the gift of foreign peoples, the offspring of the fire, a memorial public
building worthy of the occasion, in which to preserve these treasures,
and from which may be dispensed their benefits.
How shall this public building be erected? I shall not stop to repeat
that so precious seemed this generosity of the British people in 1872 that
the National Government united with the city in giving a permanent
home to the library in what had been the old postoffice. That was
defeated and its design frustrated.
But the question to-night is: Will the people of this city be true to
themselves, and the culture of the age? Such a memorial is worthy of our
city and equal in dignity to the treasures it will contain, and how can it
be done?
The late Lord Macaulay, in an inaugural address delivered in 1848
upon his election as Rector of the University of Glasgow, says that the
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 521
merchant princes of Fl6rence were the first to ennoble trade by making
trade the ally of philosophy, of eloquence and of taste. Cosmo de Medici
endowed the first public library that modern Europe possessed. And,
singularly enough, htf illustrates that the influence of this library upon
the revival of learning in the fifteenth century produced the revolution
of the sixteenth, and that a Pope — Nicholas V — was the great scholar
who, under Cosmo, planted its foundation and secured its library collec-
tioHs, while, as he claims, it became a most potent agency in the overthrow
of the ancient religion.
Throughout America, in all our older cities, the merchant princes
of our greatest houses, it is noted, become the legitimate patrons of
letters and art. In the absence of royal founders, what more princely
disposition can the great merchant prince make of his wealth? He cannot
leave it entailed, and he cannot take it with him. The Astors, and Law-
rences, and Coopers, and others are leaving such monuments behind them.
Now, Chicago has reached that period when her merchant princes — the
Fairbanks, Leiters, Pullmans, McCormicks, Fields and many others —
must regard the possession of the wealth accumulated, as charged with
a* duty of seeing that the intellectual demands of the population are sup-
plied.
While commanding the material things of this life, they cannot suffer
hunger or thirst in the very necessities of a higher culture, any more than
they could stand aside while the people died, or were dying from thirst,
or hunger, from lack of water or food. We cannot be mistaken if we
say that the open-handed and noble-minded heads of the great houses
of Chicago who passed through the great crisis of 1871-2, and rebuilt to
increase their stores since the fire, will never suffer this city of their pride
and triumphs to blemish or lose her reputation as a great center of learn-
ing, education and art.
Let us rally round the flag of the future, and see to it that the genera-
tion in which we live shall leave to posterity memorials such as may be
lessons to them in municipal duty."
Dr. H. W. Thomas said: "I was talking with a German lady out in
the country this week, and she told me that she had landed here a little
girl forty-nine years ago with her parents. She said there were a few
people, the city was a marsh, and they were crossing the river on skiffs
and a little boat, and some people wanted her father to buy property here,
and he said: 'I did not come to this country to catch frogs,' for frogs were
plentier than anything else, and so he went out here to Crown Point and
bought a farm, and there he has raised his children, and they are wealthy
in that place. But, my friends, we have a great city here, and we must
do something, as the last speaker has said, lor this city. We want some-
thing that will give us the pride of a city, and the unity of citizenship in
the city, so that we can feel that we are indeed citizens of no mean city.
Now, as I have thought over this sitting here — for I was not one of
the speakers, but somehow they have run me into ii — it has seemed to me
522 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
that nothing would do this so well as something that would be above
sectarianism, and above party, and above nationality; something that
would be cosmopolitan, taking us all in; something that would connect
us in a generous way with the memories of the past. I saw the city burned
down. I was through all that hardship. I was not burned out, for I
hadn't anything to burn, and I don't believe in burning out, anyway.
Now, I want that event in some way so commemorated that it will unify
us, and that it will relate us in a grand and grateful way to the whole
world, for there is no city on earth that the eyes of the world have been
upon so much as Chicago, and I want it to commemorate not so much
our sorrows as our triumphs, for that is the great thing. We have risen
above and we are greater far than we would have been without it, because
it has called forth our energy. And I like it again, my friends, from this
fact: I want to build monuments to the good things; to commemorate
the good things; to commemorate the great charities. We do not build
monuments to the memories that are bad ; to the deeds that are bad. We
have to carry them sorrowfully upon the pages of history, but we do not
commemorate them. We Want to commemorate the deeds that are good;
the deeds that tell of the noble things of our fellows; the things that tell
of the nobility of our nature, and now it seems to me that such a great
building and library as we are contemplating here will commemorate
this great charity, and Vr ill in that way inspire charity; and I like the
idea of the wealthy men doing a large part of it. And I tell you some-
thing of this kind will make people more generous. What we want is
something to call out the charity of the people, some great occasions;
it is coming all over the country. Why, a man in Brooklyn the other
day — he was a Methodist, too — gave a quarter of a million dollars just
to establish a hospital. A man here- in Cleveland the other day gave
half a million, I believe, to help a college, or something like that. Great
men! Now we are coming to that era when men are going to pour out
money, but then I don't like the idea of my friend, Mr. Hoyne, that the
hat should not be passed around. I would like to pass it around here
to-night, but I won't. You cannot make this thing a work of the entire
city unless everybody has something to do with it. And hence, while
we want wealthy men to carry the large load and do the great part,.
I would like to see it on a plan that everybody, every boy and girl, would
give something, and then they will feel that they have an interest in it,
and it will unite them to the city and unite them one to the other."
W. J. Hynes followed, speaking as follows: "I had expected to have
the pleasure of listening to the eloquent speeches of the orators, while
sitting in the rear of the platform, and lend my countenance, such as
there is of it, as an encouragement to this great enterprise. I had hoped
to see every seat in this hall, and all the standing-room on the outside,,
crowded with the representative citizens of our great city to lend their
encouragement and countenance to this vast enterprise. I believe their sym-
pathies are with us. And whenever Chicago is dead in earnest in anything
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 523
— in anything great, anything grand, anything really worthy of her great
heart — she knows no such word as fail.
I believe that this building is intended to commemorate our great mis-
fortune— our great fire and the charity of the world, the liberality of
mankind as shown toward us after that great calamity. And while it
should be something, as the last speaker said, which should link us gener-
ously to the past, it should be something which should link us to the
ennobling aspirations of the future for the cultivation of our people and
their elevation to a higher enlightenment. We may not rival the great •
glories and libraries of the Old World in the masterpieces of the old
artists, or in the venerable manuscripts of antiquity which they contain,
but in everything that is attainable to-day of the gems of art and the
untold catalogue of useful and entertaining literature, Chicago should be
second to no city on the globe. Our system of government and society
is founded upon the idea of equality of all men, and somebody has defined
that equality to mean equality of opportunities. There can be no equality
of opportunities in fact until learning, and books, and the opportunities
for culture and refinement are as free as the air we breathe and the water
we drink. And I trust the first care of the enterprise which is contem-
plated here to-night will be to supply those opportunities to the working
classes — to give them open libraries at night, to give them everything
which our literature affords, to give them opportunity for interchange
of thought, for comparison of ideas, and for the development of their
minds, their characters and their souls. Of course it will be also a library
for our scholars, for our students, and for our authors, in which Chicago
is becoming great; and I trust, as has been suggested by Mr. Hoyne,
that the great burden of this great work, in order to make it worthy of
Chicago, will be borne by the merchant princes of our city; and that the
suggestion of the reverend gentleman who preceded me will also be
acted upon, and that every man, woman and child of sufficient age to
appreciate the giving or to remember it in the future, may have an oppor-
tunity to contribute, and also that they may be proud of the achievement
which we are about to engage in.
Men have laid down the foundations of great reputations and lasting
fame in senates and on battle-fields, in founding cities and conducting
great works of engineering and of literature, but there is no consciousness
so ennobling, there is no enterprise so worthy, there is no sacrifice so
divine as giving for the betterment of mankind and the elevation of their
mental and moral condition. And believing that the men and women
of Chicago are of a character to enjoy such consciousness, to make such
sacrifice, to engage in such enterprise, and connect their names with the
great scheme that you have in contemplation here to-night, which I
believe will be successful, I trust that they all may have an opportunity."
The Reverend Dr. Ryder spoke as follows: "If I had a million dol-
lars to bestow upon the poor of this city — and I wish I had — to what
special uses would I apply the gift? As I answer this question, I am
524 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
quite certain that I would not distribute a very large portion of it among
the people in small sums of money. This is, in some respects, a useful
form of charity, but it is also a harmful form of charity. To give to the
worthy poor — and of these there are many — is a satisfaction to any benevo-
lent person; but one should take heed upon whom he bestows money as
an act of charity, lest he thereby put a premium upon improvidence.
In regard to benevolent institutions, I would speak with much caution.
They are needful, useful — they deserve our attention and our support.
Not a word have I to utter against them. But these institutions, however
needful and meritorious, are not intended specially to reform and elevate
the people, but to provide for the necessities of the unfortunate. In this
respect they justly hold an important place in the public esteem.
But while we are performing our duty to all these charitable institu-
tions, let us carefully consider what we can do in aid of the sons and
daughters of the poor and for that large class of persons who are so
greatly dependent upon the industry and frugality of others.
The public sentiment of Chicago needs no characterization. It is
not the worst of any city in the land, but it is at least susceptible of being
made better; it is what may be called a hopeful subject»to work upon.
Now, the public sentiment of any community has a vast deal to do
with shaping the tastes and forming the habits of the young — much more
than is 'generally supposed. Arguments influence; appeals benefit;
threatened danger deters; but the silent voices that come into the life out
of the very air we breathe, almost unconsciously and continuously, are
of all influences the most potential in molding character. Whatever,
therefore, can aid in the improvement of public sentiment, in elevating
the tone of society, and in opening to the industrious poor larger oppor-
tunities for growth and usefulness, is to be hailed with joy.
I base my appeal for the establishment of such an institution as this
meeting contemplates, upon the aid it will give to sound scholarship, but
especially for the ennobling influence it will exert upon many a poor
man's child.
You are a friend to the common school system of instruction. So am I.
But in order to render that system more effective for good, the wisdom of
experience has placed above that system the higher schools, and especially
the great colleges of the country. It is true but few persons out of the
entire population receive direct instruction from them. But large as is
the benefit conferred even in this way, that is far from being the proper
measure of their power for good. For thousands of young men out
among the hills and upon the prairies — in the distant homes of our land —
who never saw either Harvard, Yale, Brown, Dartmouth, or Tufts, and
possibly never will, are yet uplifted by these centers of learning, and are
stronger and better for the influence which they have exerted upon them.
The same is true of every instrumentality that addresses the higher
nature of man.
Now I do not expect that the establishment in this city of a great
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. S-.S
library and art building will put an end to all our social and political
troubles, and at once inaugurate the millennium. But I do claim that
such an enterprise is highly desirable, not merely as an aid to learning,
and a contribution toward a correct public taste, but for the uplifting appeal
which it will make to all classes of society — the poor as well as the rich — •
and for the incentives to success which it will place at the very doors of
nil our homes.
Do I then sav that esthetic culture, books, and the arts and refine-
ments of cultivated life of themselves are sufficient to secure to us the
higher civilization we desire? No; emphatically no; all the libraries and
art galleries in the world, if brought within our city, would not produce
this result. There is no substitute for the family, and none for the church,,
and we are not seeking for one. These, and such as these, are indispensable.
But esthetic taste is certainly not antagonistic to these higher interests —
does not array itself against them ; but, on the contrary, occupies a place
in the broad education of humanity which neither of these can fill.
All hail, then, to this new enterprise. It is no man's enemy, but
every man's friend. It will work for good in your lifetime; and long
after we are dead it will still reach out its helpful hand to the humblest
citizen of this great city and bid him accept the kindly aid which it so
generously offers."
Franklin MacVeagh made the following remarks : "To commemorate
the flood of generous sentiment and practical charity of 1871 is certainly
well. We should not, in doing this, be commemorating simply the
world's kindness to Chicago. We should be doing honor as well to
a phenomenal phase of human nature. Not only was Chicago astonished
at the world; the world was astonished at itself. Steam, the telegraph,,
and the modern news system — those greatest instrumentalities of the self-
seeking side of modern life — were quickly turned to the use of charity^
that charity might become, for once in all time, instantaneous and universal.
And so the marvelous generosity of mankind, its massive tenderness and
gentleness, as never before in history, stood fairly revealed. And the
stern justice of its law, the keen selfishness of its commerce, and the dread
horrors of its wars, were reinterpreted and softened in the light of the
world's good will. Such a phenomenon is worthy of commemoration
certainly. We of Chicago are those who are entitled, we are those who
are obliged to do it honor. Let us say that it shall be done.
Nor do I think that Chicago will be blamed if, thinking always first
of the kindness she received, she thinks afterward of her own conduct in
her great emergency. What the world did and what Chicago did are
bound up together. The generosity of the one, the pluck and manliness
of the other. The wounds of the great fire are healed; but they once
were fresh and terrible; and it shall forever be the great distinction of
this city of unique future that she was tried by fire and was not found
wanting. Her accumulations were swept away, her homes were destroyed,
her commercial position and her future were imperiled; but she did not
526 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
fear, she did not even sigh, and she neither hesitated nor delayed. In all
the future of our gi'eat city let the smaller Chicago of 1871 be forever
remembered with respect. Whatever her crudities and faults she estab-
lished her claim to the respect of her posterity by her integrity and by
her courage.
One thing more. Objections have been made to such demonstrations
upon October ninth as would seem to celebrate Chicago's disaster. Those
objections were, it seems to me, well taken. But they suggest to me to
say that it would be a misfortune if we should so far forget the somber
side of the great fire as to lose the benefits of its grave lessons. This
hopeful people had to be retaught by the fire of July,* 1874, before a
single lesson of the great fire was really learned, and even now-a-days
we hear and see things touching fire protection which dispute all the sad
experience of our city. I was here on the night of that terrible ninth
of October. I as little as any other citizen am willing to constantly dwell
upon the horror of the havoc of that night. Rather let us hope that
ferocious drama was acted once for all; that the wild glare and fierce
heat are never to return; that the relentless inarch of that battle-front of
fire across our warehouses and homes is never to be repeated; that we
shall not again, homeless and with broken fortunes, stand face to face
with a calamity so pitiless and colossal that to have looked upon it with
calmness and with spirit has made the best fame of our city! But let us
never forget that our protection against a recurrence is in our own hands.
To refuse, fellow citizens, to provide that protection by good laws and
earnest administration, by the expenditure of necessary money, and by
the subordination of less important considerations to that consideration
born of our great distress, is to challenge the reality of our boasted civil-
ization and to do as those animals do which, liberated from a burning
building, rush back from the free air to perish in the flames.
And now, how can we better or more permanently commemorate
the charity of the great world — how better than associate with it the
recollection of the courage and manhood of our city; how better establish
a lasting monitor instinct with wise precautions than by erecting and
dedicating this building for a library and a museum? How could we
supply a more pressing or a higher need of our population? How could
we better add to the metropolitan equipment of the city? How could we
more honor Chicago than by placing it anew in line with the great cities
of .the world by erecting homes for these two great institutions of culture?
Let the building be built, and built worthily and dedicated worthily,
and let it be the building of the people and the expression of the people's
thought. Let the fund grow from wide-spread contribution, so that these
treasures may be the treasures of the whole people and the commemora-
tion be commemoration by us all.
It will be a spectacle worthy of this great young community; and
one that will not tend to disappoint the expectations of the world when
Chicago, ten years after her great calamity, mindful of the past and
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 527
grateful — alive, withal, to the best ideals and inspirations of our time,
shall seek an expression of her sentiment in doing high honor to litera-
ture and art."
Emery A. Storrs spoke as follows: "The time has passed when the
city of Chicago can plead infancy, business pursuits, or press of other
business engagements as a defense for the total neglect of anything that
looks in the direction of intellectual culture. I am tired of the uniformity
of its brag. I am tired of hearing the same thing bragged about all the
time. I am tired of being continually reminded of the vastness of the Stock
Yards, of the extent of the grain trade, of the magnitude of our lumber
interests, and o£ the enormous development of the pork trade in this great
commercial metropolis. I want less of steers and less of pork, and more
of culture. I am in favor of the steers and the pork, but I believe that
out of them both, and out of that raw, crude energy which has builded
upon the shores of this splendid inland sea a city the marvel of the world
there shall grow a culture as grand, as magnificent as that great material
and physical prosperity has heretofore been.
I am in favor of this splendid scheme, not because I think it will pay.
I am tired of having literature and dividends march hand in hand. I want
Chicago to rise to that eminence where it can do something that won't
pay; won't pay in any pecuniary sense, but will pay in the larger, and
broader, and grander, 'and better sense. I want Chicago to be as dis-
tinguished for its intellectual achievements, for the culture of its men and
women, as it has been for its merely material and physical achievements.
We have not been making cultured men and women here, but we
have been preparing for forty years, material for the grandest culture
which this continent has ever witnessed. The polish grinds away the
crudeness of the marble, and brings to the surface its inherent splendor,
but you must have the marble to make the polish effective. No amount
of polish nor attrition that you may place upon the rotten stone will
achieve anything except the useless consumption of the polish and a waste
of the material. We have been preparing a tough fiber, big, hearty,
broad-browed, lofty-purposed material here, to-day a little rough and
crude in its exterior, but, when the polish is applied, there will come to
the surface the inherent beauties that will shine like the planet, and make
the name of Chicago famous all around the globe. Books will do this.
Art will do this. Great public libraries will do this, and Chicago can
make no more fitting memorial of the charities of the world than a great
building that shall face the sun on the shores of this inland sea, the shining
dome of which shall greet it morning after morning, and shall salute the
setting sun good night for all the ages to come, and in which shall be
stored the best works, the best thoughts and the best pictures of the
world. This will commemorate the glory of Chicago.
I have said that I believe in the culture of this city; in its great
intellectual growth and development. I know what Chicago can do.
I protest against the merchant princes having all the credit of this splen-
£528 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
• it \'v
did enterprise. I protest against the business men absorbing it all. It is
to their honor if they desire to do it. I am not a business1 riinn^ rfor is Dr.s
Thomas, nor Professor Swing, but I insist upon it that if a shining record
is to be kept, our names with our little subscriptions shalll go down to
posterity, and when the achievements, political and otherwise, of the best'
Mayor that Chicago ever had have passed from human record, it will be
preserved to his credit that he presided here to-night. Suppose, my fel-'
low citizens, that a list of the contributors for the erection of the Parthenon"
had been preserved! What makes a city renowned? It is not pork. It
is not trade. It is not: its heaped-up wealth. It is its1 men. The men-
who contributed to the Parthenon have died out of human records two'
•
thousand three hundred years ago. Phidias remains, the man who'
adorned it. Athens you can place in your original Congressional district,'
but the names of Socrates, and Solon, and Plato, and Leonidas,' anxh
Phidias, and Praxiteles will make Athens famous forever, make Athens
endure in history, tradition, and honor until the 'latest period of recorded
time.
Loving this splendid city, grand in its triumphs and colossal in its
calamities, never doing anything by halves, I wish 'to see the streaming
line of cultured' men carrying its name and dts fame down through all the
generations. That only will preserve it. And when I consider the occa-
sion for which we have met to-night; when I look past these busy,
tumultuous, throbbing years that take us to that fearful calamity; when
I see the city of my soul in ashes as she sat there robed in the sackcloth,
and in the ashes of her desolation, when there were poured into her lap
from all the world millions and millions of benefactions, when I saw the
splendid energy of her men rising like a new spirit, and before the smoke
of the terrible conflagration was from their garments rearing on the
snores of this lake a city which challenges the wonder and admiration
of the world, I would build a memorial commensurate with the grandeur
of the occasion which it celebrates, worthy of the future of this gi'eat
city, where books and art shall find a fitting temple and a fitting home.
Martin Luther said: 'Every great action is a book, and every great book
is an action,' and so I would like to see in some magnificent temple, all
the great actions of all the times past gathered together, and every man
a contributor, and going down through the times to come with the roar-
ing of trade and throbbing of machinery, with the triumphant song of
cultured men and women, with the banner of trade made glorious by the
whiter light of science. This we can do. The details men of business
will settle. The pride of Chicago demands it. The honor of the city
exacts it. We all know it. And to this great enterprise, thus splendidly
inaugurated, every one bids prosperity and Godspeed."
The Reverend Dr. Lorimer, the next speaker, addressed the audience
as follows: "When the fury of fire desolated the fair city of Chicago,
I was a resident in the old Puritan city of Boston. I remember well the
excitement that followed the announcement of the fire, the meetings that
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 529
were held promptly in that city, and the earnest, practical sympathy
that was expressed by the people there. For, however stei'n and rugged
old Boston's coast may he, she has a tender heart in her breast for all
people who are in distress. I remember, however, of the time while we
were seeking to do our best to aid you in your terrible calamity that our
sorrow was mingled with appreciation of your energy, of your earnestness,
of your zeal and manly courage, when you determined to go forward
and restore the city.
I had little expectation in those days of ever living here among you,
but I am one of this great city, and it affords me great pleasure to be present
this evening at this meeting, and to pledge you my hearty co-operation, in
building not the memorial Chicago, for that is in other hands, but to pledge
you my co-operation in connection with these gentlemen and all these friends
present, in upbuilding the future intellectual and moral Chicago, which I
believe, with Mr. Storrs, shall be yet the brightest and the purest and the
best that the world has ever seen. In Luxembourg gallery there is a famous
picture representing the decline of the Roman Empire, I believe, by
Coupee. The picture is allegorical. It presents to the beholder an old
Roman temple, and in this temple are gathered men and women carousing.
A little lad is holding a goblet of wine to the lips of one of the old gods,
and around the room there are stern images of the men of former times,
when to be a Roman was to be a king; and retreating from the room
a few individuals with downcast looks, evidently ashamed of tht» degen-
eracy, of the effeminacy, riot, and corruption apparent. The intellectual
life of Rome was going out. Her moral strength had departed, and all
that remained was not worth counting or enumerating. And, as has been
said to-night by several of these gentlemen, a city's grandeur and a city's
strength depend upon its moral and its intellectual life, and I feel like
pleading to you and urging all citizens of Chicago to work together for
the purpose of placing this city in a position where no such sad record as
that v. hich the painter has put upon the canvas shall be made of us by
our posterity. Intellectual life, moral life, the true powers that make or
that build up cities can, I have no doubt, be forwarded largely by the
enterprise which you contemplate.
I do desire to see built in this city such a building as has been
described, with books, with galleries, with all the necessary arrangements
for supplying the people with the means for personal culture; and I be-
lieve, moreover, that this good city of Chicago ought to be the brightest,
the grandest, and strongest city of learning upon this continent; that
here, in addition to this public building that you contemplate rearing,
there should be a university whose name should be world-wide, and to
graduate from whose halls would be a diploma to the highest circles
of scholarship anywhere. Think not your obligation will end with
merely erecting this library and this gallery.
I had intended to call attention to two thoughts, and will do so very
briefly. The importance of seeking to emancipate ourselves from the
530 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
materialistic tendency of our times. This tendency is not alone felt here,
it is felt throughout the entire world. To lift ourselves above it requires
the facilities that you are proposing to provide. In addition to the deliver-
ing of ourselves from materialistic tendencies, there is a very important
work that must be done — not simply the unifying, as Dr. Thomas has
said, of the citizens of Chicago, but the unifying of the various classes
which compose a city. We cannot ignore the fact that the drift and rush
of our times have created a chasm between capital and labor, and that,
like two armed camps, they look askance of each other to-day. But
when capital steps forward with its hundreds of thousands and says to
the laboring man: 'We consecrate this money to your good, for your
elevation, and for your progress,' the strife will grow less bitter, the war-
fare less fierce, and these classes will be more apt to come together in
true brotherhood than they would under other circumstances.
I do feel an intense and an abiding interest in the laboring men — in
the poorer classes of a great city. I have been a poor man — I am not
much better now, and I don't suppose I ever shall be — and I know what
it is to struggle, and strive, and toil to obtain a few dollars wherewith to
provide food, not merely for the body, but food for that which is more
unconscionable— food for the brain, food for the thought; that I might
be lifted up out of the surroundings to which I seemed bound and destined.
And so my heart beats in sympathy with the millions, and I had rather
err wit^i them than be right with those who have everything at their
disposal and everything that wealth and luxury can procure. And so
I ask that we shall, in making these arrangements and providing this
building, keep the thought conspicuous that we are seeking to unify all
classes, to bring into harmony all orders and ranks of society, and to place
upon a proper and equal footing the man who works with his hands and
the man who works with his brain.
I am familiar with many monuments. I have traversed the Old
World time after time. I have looked on the glories of the Alhambra.
I have visited the palaces and also the sacred places of Europe. I have
studied them, and I have made friends of them, but in all my travels
I have never found one monument yet reared to charity — not one. It is
recorded in an obscure English book that a Christian woman refused to
surrender a poor refugee that had sought protection beneath her roof, and,
on that account, was doomed to the stake, and when she was going for-
ward to her martyrdom she said: 'Some men and women have died
for their faith. I am to die for charity, and willingly I surrender up my
life.' No monument that I can recall in all of my readings and journey -
ings — not a single obelisk, not a single building or gallery — is consecrated
to the commemoration of charity.
That which the world has not yet seen shall be seen on our lake
front. We will rear it, we will endow it, we will place in it works of art,
books, everything that can enrich the human mind, and when the comina
generations shall visit the spacious and magnificent edifice, and shall
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 531
inquire to what was this reared and for what, the guardian shall explain
to them : 'This building was reared by thankful hearts, by loving arms,
throughout a prostrate city who responded with their thankfulness and
gratitude to a world-wide generosity. This building was reared to,
and forever is to be consecrated to charity — the world's charity, the charity
that came from heaven and spoke through human lips in Galilee, and
which burst forth in the glorious consummation in 1871, when men sent
* of their abundance to succor the poor and needy.'"
Mr. E. G. Mason spoke as follows: "It is well that the people of
Chicago assemble to-night to carry into effect the purpose which is in all
their hearts. Less than ten years ago our city vanished in a storm of fire;
but, while the skies were still red, there came to its stricken people from
the whole wide world the boundless aid, the priceless sympathy, which
alone rendered the calamity endurable. And now that its scars are well
nigh effaced; now that our city has been builded again, and more beauti-
ful than before; now that prosperity has returned, we all of us feel that
the time has come to commemorate in the way which shall be most fitting
that memorable period in our history.
It is no new thing to mark such an occurrence by an enduring
memorial. Just two hundred years ago was completed the lofty monu-
ment which still lifts its tall head above the crowded roofs of London to
tell for all time, it may be, the story of the terrible conflagration which
laid that metropolis in ashes. That column was erected only as a memento
of the destruction of a city by fire. But our project enshrines a better
thought and has a higher purpose. For we propose to signalize not
merely a material calamity, however great, but especially and peculiarly
the matchless humanity which its occurrence revealed. We intend to
preserve the remembrance, not simply of the loss, but above all of the
wondrous kindliness and munificence which took away the sense of loss.
Other famous monuments the world has had in all ages. On the
Plain of Marathon, for twenty centuries and more, the mound which
Athens raised has marked the graves of 'the brave and fallen few' who
withstood the many there for their country's sake; in the Pass of Ther-
mopylae the memorial tablet long told the passer-by of the three hundred
who died for love of Sparta; the Lion of Lucerne treasures the memories
of the faithful Swiss guards who were true to their oaths and gave their
lives for the monarch whom they could not save; and on Cemetery Hill
at Gettysburg, 'keeping guard over the bivouac of the dead,' stands the
statue of the gallant General Reynolds, who led the van for the Union
in that Titanic contest, and fell in the very forefront of the battle. These
and such as these are noble monuments. Can we build here a nobler
one? Yes! oh yes! For these tell of the fidelity and the courage, which
were superlatively manly, but the unselfishness and the tenderness
which we wish to commemorate were divine. These speak of 'battles
and the breath of stormy war and violent death,' but our monument shall
speak of peace and brotherhood, of the electric flash of sympathy which
532 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
made the whole world kin with us, and of the Godlike spirit which brought
even from far-off lands and the islands of the sea cheer and comfort in
the time of our sorest need. And as the years roll on, the victories of
which it testifies will be more 'renowned than those of war.' And this
as Well, because we intend it to be not merely a monument pure and
simple, the only use of which would lie in its associations, but a monu-
mental structure which shall be a home for literature and art for generations
to come; a fire memorial indeed, but builded of books and adorned with
pictures.
And so those terrible October days, which in our calendars will ever
be printed in characters of flame, and the world's response to the havoc
which they wrought shall be commemorated, not by the pageant of a day
gone like a breath, not by any unseemly festivity, all unmeet for such an
event, but by a stately library and gallery of art which shall be to this
community a blessing forevermore."
Professor Swing said : "There is perhaps only one city in the world
having a population of a half million, along whose streets no traveler or
citizen can find a single structure built by local benevolence. Chicago
has the honor of being that city. Without a rival in the grain trade,
and lumber trade, and meat market, it is without a rival in its contempt
of the arts. There is a village in Michigan having a population of four
thousand five hundred — Coldwater — in which village there is a better
gallery of painting and statuary than there can now be found in this
city. This building was erected and filled with attractive pictures and
statuary at the expense of one citizen. Each Saturday it is warmed up
comfortably for the public. It cost in all perhaps seventy-five thousand
dollars. Chicago cannot equal it or even approach it. If the purpose
of this meeting to-night fails, it is to be hoped that the railroads will issue
cheap tickets so that all lovers of pretty things may once a year make
a trip into the interior of Michigan.
The only valid excuse for Chicago's coldness toward libraries and
art is that it did not wish to act before it was ready to act well. We are
all ashamed to say that the city is too young, has been too unfortunate,
had to build itself upon a marsh, had to wait for the generation of toilers
and adventurers to die and for a generation of readers and thinkers and
cultivated hearts to come. What force such arguments once had has
passed away, for the swamp has been filled up, the calamity of fire has been
passed by, the second generation so waited for has come, and could it
paint its own portrait, the picture would surpass the dream of the most
sanguine of our ancestors. No excuse remains except that Chicago did
not wish to think of library or gallery until it could think and act largely.
If this has of late been the secret motive of such an inaction in so impor-
tant a direction, we shall all hasten to forgive our loitering public. The
time for excuses has altogether gone by, and the city as an apologist for
indolence is in the situation of that cadet who had asked many times
for a week's absence on account of the last illness of his grandmother.
O
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 533
He was excused at last with this warning: 'You may go, sir; but if your
grandmother is not dead in five days I will put you in the guard-house
for a month.'
The opportunity has now come for erecting an edifice that shall have
several noble reasons of existence. All public buildings should stand not
upon a foundation of rock only, but upon a good foundation of reason.
Three great motives have brought you hither to-night. Three motives
impel us who speak, and three motives, or desires, or hopes are in the
hearts of all our citizens in these days — that there should be a library
building; that there should be an art building, and that this great city
should confess in some work that would be perpetual that charity of the
world which pitied us in the day of calamity. By means of a public
library and art building we would render visible and admirable the
greatest act of charity the world ever saw. Upon such foundations —
literature, art and charity — a structure ought to arise and arise easily and
grandly. As there is nothing small in these three motives, there should
be nothing small in the planning of this enterprise.
In India there is a single tomb which cost fifty millions of dollars.
It was built by a Prince who had money, but who had no great outlook
over the needs of society. He knew nothing of libraries, or galleries, or
lecture-rooms, or opera-houses, and from his poverty of motives his for-
tune went into a mausoleum. The civilization of this Western hemisphere
takes a wider survey of man and teaches better application of money.
In Cleveland one citizen gave only a few days ago five hundred thousand
dollars to a classic college; in the same city another citizen had by a few
months preceded this gift with an almost equal donation. Cincinnati
can point to a monument of nobleness in its Music and Exposition Build-
ings. On all sides we see money going from the individual to the
multitude by acts of simple love for man. To the ordinary motives
which move benevolent hearts Chicago adds a motive elsewhere unknown.
Chicago owes the world a debt' of gratitude. When she lay in ashes the
civilized nations reached out the hand of brothers and helped the pros-
trate town. To confess such a world-wide kindness should not be the
duty of our city, but its happiness. A building should arise in the name
of the world's charity. It should contain a tablet or a window in memory
of the goodness of each nation — some memento of England, some
memento of France, of Russia, of Germany, of China. We should all
rejoice to contribute money to an object so full of the highest merit."
James Lane Allen said: " I am profoundly grateful to you for this
evidence of your kindness. To be in the slightest, even suggester of .that
which is good to one's race is, I am sure, an honor which any one might
covet; and that I have been simply an humble instrument of suggesting
to this great, broad-minded, large-handed, big-hearted people of Chicago
the way in which properly to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the
oreat fire I am profoundly thankful. I don't intend to make a speech.
I assure you this calling of myself before you was entirely unexpected
534 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
on my part, but I wish to say just one thing that comes to my mind now,
and that is a thought that has often dwelt there. I think that he lives
longest who loves most, and therefore the more love in our hearts toward
our fellows, the longer will we live in their memories. I am sure that
this meeting is but a harbinger of the success which will crown the sug-
gestion which I have made to you, and I am sure that the grandest tablet
that could be placed upon the front of the building would be that every
man, woman, yea, and every child of this great city who was able to
write his or her name upon the subscription books for this noble purpose
had done so, and that all future generations will say that this building was
reared by the men, women and children of Chicago as a memorial of
their gratitude for the wonderful and unparalleled generosity to them in
their time of deep distress."
D. L. Shorey spoke as follows: "The free public library is the crea-
tion of the nineteenth century. It has not as yet been universally adopted.
It is found only in those States and nations which tolerate the largest
liberty, and preserve for the people the greatest extension of privilege.
The State of New Hampshire in 1849 had the honor of enacting the first
general statute .authorizing towns to establish and maintain public libraries.
In the previous year Massachusetts authorized the establishment of the
Boston Public Library, and in 1850 extended the authority to all the towns
in the State. The Boston Library was the first to be established, and it
is to-day by far the best free public library in the world. Great Britain
and her colonies immediately followed the example of Massachusetts;
and the free public library is now recognized throughout the lines of the
liberty-loving English-speaking race in both hemispheres. It was no
accident when our city was in desolation that our English friends sent to
us the finest token of sympathy in books for the beginning of a library.
The principle upon which public libraries are supported had been
acknowledged in New England for two hundred years, and the fathers
of the Republic founded it in the full conviction that the experim%nt
would be a failure unless it should rest upon the broad basis of intelli-
gence widely diffused among £he masses. Ignorance brings with it a horrid
brood of furies against which intelligence alone is the one sure antagonist.
Governments exercise those functions which are necessary for the general
welfare, and which cannot safely be left wholly to private enterprise.
Who does not feel safer in his person and in possessions with the knowl-
edge that the children of the entire people are coming onto the stage of
active life with the life- long opportunities which the public schools and
libraries afford for raising the whole grade of intelligence throughout
the community?
In a commercial community, where magnificent prizes await the
successful organizer of business, there is sometimes a tendency to ignore
the higher agencies of civilization which alone make a people great and
worthy of commemoration. This meeting is one of manv pledges that
Chicago does not mean to neglect the refining and ennobling influences
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 535
of art, literature and learning. This meeting was called to give an added
impulse to a movement that was begun before the fii'e of 1871. That
movement gained force from the calamity in which so many books and
works of art were destroyed, and which made manifest the necessity of
immediate action to replace the lost treasure?. Our library was then
organized with the greatest unanimity of opinion. It has steadily gained
in the public estimation. It deserves all the estimation it has; for it is
a well selected library, of a cosmopolitan character, in which the literature
of all languages is, and will continue to be in increasing fullness, repre-
sented.
It is no untried experiment. It is a fact accomplished. It is, and
will remain, an institution as dear to the people as the common school
whose work it continues and supplements.
The present needs of the library are much greater than it is in the
power of the city government to supply. At the earliest moment possible
it ouCTht to be in a suitable building, with grounds ample for light and
future extension of the building. It ought to have more books. It can
never have too many of them. And when these pressing wants shall
have been supplied it will still need branches situated in different parts
of the city, such as have been found necessary in all the great libraries of
its class in England and in the United States.
Nor is it the city of Chicago alone that you will help in aiding to
build up this library. No man can state the impulse to intelligence given
by the Boston Public Library. It preserved to that grave old city its
intellectual supremacy at a time when its commercial supremacy was
passing away. It filled the whole Commonwealth of Massachusetts
with similar lil raries, so that there is nothing comparable to it in the
world. It set in motion the legislation of nearly all the old free States.
Like results have followed, and will continue to follow your action here.
You will make this metropolis the home of learning and the center of
literary as well as commercial activity. The movement that was organ-
ized here ten years ago caused similar movements in twenty cities of this
State; and the impulse of this meeting to-night will be felt from Galena
to Cairo, and will extend widely beyond the limits of the State."
Albert Hayden said: "I want to say a few words in behalf of a class
that do so much of our labor, and yet, oftentimes, are forgotten — the
young of the city of Chicago. For what need have we of eyes, if seeing
we have nothing sweet to look upon? The fine arts of this city have for
years, like the Princess in the fairy tale, slept a dreamless sleep, but the
Prince — the people — has come, the kiss has been given, and the city
awakes to a new life of beautiful endeavor. 'Tis like the diamond dew-
drops of hope's rosy dawn breathing life into the slumbering talents
of the city by the kiss of the people. We do see, and the memorial will
be sweet — will be beautiful to look upon."
It was moved that an executive committee be appointed, with power
to add to their number, whose duty it should be to take charge of and
536 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
conduct a popular subscription for the purpose of raising funds with
which to erect a Memorial Public Library and Art Building or buildings;
and to appoint from its own number a board of ten trustees, of which the
Mayor of the city, ex-officio, should be a member and its chairman. Such
trustees should have exclusive charge of the safe-keeping and expenditure
of the funds so raised, and determine all questions relating to the location,
plans and construction of such building or buildings. This Executive
Committee were the following named gentlemen:
George E. Adams, James Lane Allen, John Ailing, E. G. Assay,
P. D. Armour, George Armour, Herbert C. Ayer, E. W. Blatchford,
Samuel Baker, W. I. Baker, E. N. Bates, A. C. Bartlett, Martin Beem,
William Best, W. F. Blair, T. B. Blackstone, E. R. Bliss, Samuel Bliss,
George Bohner, H. R. Boss, N. K. Fairbank, Marshall Field, D. B. Fisk,
John Forsythe, William M. B. French, William A. Fuller, A. B. Gage,
L. J. Gage, N. T. Gassette, Charles Gossage, Amos Grannis, E. P. Hall,
Charles D. Hamill, Albert Hayden, Monroe Heath, H. N. Hibbard,
•William J. Hynes, C. M. Hotchkiss, F. C. Hotz, W. E. McHenry, John
J. McGrath, A. McNeil, Franklin MacVeagh, J. H. McVicker, E. Man-
dell, Judge S. M. Moore, E. G. Mason, A. B. Meeker, Judge Thomas A.
Moran, Michael Keeley, L. P. Nelson, Murry Nelson, Dr. O. W. Nixon,
J. W. Oakley, W. J. Onahan, P. W. Palmer, Sanford D. Perry, Ferd
W. Peck, Ed. D. Hosmer, Dr. Ernst Schmidt, O. J. Smith, Byron L.
Smith, O. S. A. Sprague, E. B. Stevens, Joseph Stockton, W. E. Strong,
Michael Schweisthal, James Springer, H. S. Bowler, James B. Bradwell.
Michael 'Brand, James R. Caldwell, B. Callaghan, J. H. Carpenter, C.
H. Case, R. T. Crane, G. C. Clark, John V. Clarke, D. C. Cregier,
J. W. Doane, James H. Dole, John B. Drake, N. C. Draper, R. W. Dun-
ham, George L. C. Dunlap, James K. Edsall, J. Ward Ellis, Aid. Everett,
George M. How, Charles L. Hutchinson, John B. Jeffery, W. L. B.
Jenney, L. W. Kecllee, Edson Keith, E. G. Keith, W. Scott Keith,
Charles Kern, W. W. Kimball, Henry W. King, David A. Kohn, E.
Lane, Robert Law, L. Z. Leiter, W. D. Le Parle, Arthur A. Libby,
B. Loewental, A. C. McClurg,-Erskine N. Phelps, Eugene N. Pike, W.
F. Poole, O. W. Potter, J. W. Preston, A. B. Pullman, George M. Pull-
man, John G. Rogers, John W. Root, M. A. Rorke, Jacob Rosenberg,
Julius Rosenthal, Harry Rubens, Joseph Sears, Theodore Schintz, George
Schneider, Conrad Seipp, M. Belz, D. L. Shorey, C. H. Taylor, Henry
Waller, Jr., John B. Walker, J. W. Waughop, A. N. Waterman, Willard
Woodard, Henry J. Willing and A. B. Adair.
537
CHARLES KERN.
It would be difficult to approximately estimate Chicago's indebted-
ness to German character and intellect. Famed for her colleges, her
philosophy, her music and system of education, Germany is in a position
to aid in perfecting the maturing process in the New World, and she has
contributed a goodly portion of the best element of her people to the
city on the lake shore. Lovers of liberty, intelligent and industrious, our
citizens of German origin have been a powerful factor in the develop-
ment of good government, the advance of intelligence, and the creation
of the commercial greatness of our city. There is in the German char-
acter that innate love for right and justice, which constitutes both an
incentive to proper action and a fortress against the assaults of those
peculiar temptations which seek to entrap men in official life, and the
exceptional corruption, which serves to more clearly define the rule,
is always most severely censured by the Germans themselves.
Among the most prominent of the representative German- American
citizens of Chicago, is Charles Kern, the subject of this sketch, whose
private and public record commands the approval not only of the Ger-
man ponulace but of the community at large, without distinction of party
or class. Affable in manner, kind of heart, and circumspect in his private
life, he early and readily won popularity, and his record as the occupant
of an important local office, confirmed his title to popular esteem.
Charles Kern was born at Otterbach, in Rhenish-Bavaria, Germany,
.April iSth, 1831. He enjoyed the facilities "for obtaining an education
which are furnished the masses by the admirable German system, and
was thus well equipped for the battle of life. When eighteen years of
age he left his native land and came to America, settling at Terre H;iute,
Indiana, where by close attention to business, a pleasing address and
upright conduct, he soon established himself not only as a leading but
an exceedingly popular citizen. In course of time he took more or less
interest in politics, identifying himself with the Democratic party, which
in 1862 placed him in nomination for the shrievalty of Vigo county.
The party at this time appeared to be in a hopeless minority, and it seemed
a useless sacrifice for a man to permit himself to be used as a candidate,
a view which Mr. Kern himself took of the situation, and as a result
positively refused to consent to the use of his name before the convention..
Notwithstanding his unwillingness to be a candidate, however, he was
538 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
nominated by acclamation, and elected by a large majority, an unexpected
success, furnishing conclusive evidence of his popularity and the general
confidence in his character. Nor was this popular estimate of his fitness
for the responsible position excessive, as was shown by the executive
ability and unswerving honesty which distinguished his administration
of his office, and which secured for him the honor of being called by his
constituency the best sheriff that Vigo county ever had.
After the close of his official term in that county, he removed to
Chicago, and made a permanent settlement here in 1865. He rapidly grew
in popularity and in the confidence of the people, and in 1868 was unani-
mously nominated as the Democratic candidate for sheriff of Cook county.
There was no hope, however, for his election, the. county being over-
whelmingly Republican. But his candidacy brought him prominently
before the public, and in 1870 he was again the unanimous choice of his
party for the office for which he was defeated in 1868. While he was
not elected, and had no expectation of being, his popularity was evidenced
in the fact that he ran nearly three thousand ahead of his ticket. In 1872
he was once more unanimously selected by the Democracy as their candi-
date for the shrievalty, and was again defeated, but ran four thousand
ahead of the regular ticket. In 1876 he was for the fourth time placed
in unanimous nomination, and was elected by the flattering majority of
six thousand votes, while the balance of the Democratic county ticket
was defeated by four thousand majority.
Two years have passed since Mr. Kern was the sheriff of Cook
county, and an impartial estimate of his administration of the office can
be made. In doing this we shall be greatly assisted by the commendation
given him while he was yet in office by those who were opposed to him
politically. The Republican journals, Republican lawyers, and the
public at large, united in saying that the office was managed with remarka-
ble courtesy and economy. Many innovations were made upon old
customs, and many things introduced into the administration, which
made the sheriff's office of greater public utility and convenience. The
strict business habits of the man were carried by him into the discharge
of his public duties, and straightforward honesty shone conspicuously
throughout his official term.
Since his retirement from office, Mr. Kern has devoted himself strictly
to his private business. During the first year of Mavor Harrison's
administration, Mr. Kern's name was prominently mentioned in connec-
tion with the office of Chief of Police, but he declined to entertain the
proposition. In the Spring of iSSi he was requested to permit the use of
his name in connection with the Democratic nomination for City Treasurer,
and could have received the nomination, but preferring to give his atten-
tion to his private business, he declined to be a candidate.
In personal appearance the Ex-Sheriff of two counties in separate
States — although he is only in the prime of life — looks much younger than
he really is; and while his natural courtesy is apt to attract attention, he
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 539
yet gives evidence amidst all his mildness of manner of the indomitable
will and energy which he possesses in such a prominent degree, and
which insures him success in all that he undertakes.
D. V. PURINGTON.
The men whose biographies most benefit the world and give the
most complete satisfaction to those immediately interested in them, are
not those who through some exceptionally favorable opportunity have
been suddenly thrust into prominence, but are those whose lives have been
a steady and gradual development and progress. It is character that is
not only the safeguard and support of society, but the chief ornament of
the individual, and perfect character is of slow and symmetrical growth.
Special emergencies may call to the surface special traits, and the man
whose fitness for the hour is thus demonstrated, may attract the public
attention and merit the public regard for what nature fitted him to do
under the circumstances. But when particular occasions and necessities
are required to develop men's higher usefulness, the fact indicates a lack
of symmetrical organization, and suggests that the major portion of such
lives must be spent in very indifferent benefit to the world. The meteors
are beautiful, but it is the steady shining stars that receive our greatest
adoration, and while the flash of suddenly acquired fame dazzles for
a moment, it is the man who is faithful and efficient in the discharge of
every duty in all of the relations of life, upon whom our thoughts and
respect center. D. V. Purington, the subject of the following sketch, is
eminently one of those who has gradually and healthily grown into
honorable prominence, and whose usefulness and uprightness as a business
man, citizen and official have merited and received the homage of his
neighbors and of the public. Of New England and Quaker origin, he
is endowed by both birth and training with that love of principle and
staunchness of character which are so grandly prominent in New England
civilization and in the society of Friends, and which have served him so
well as the basis for success in life. With such a rich inheritance, the
only question that ever presents itself to his mind to be answered as
a preliminary to prompt action is, Is it a duty? All other considerations
are subordinate.
Mr. Purington was born January 22d, 1841, in Sidney, Kennebec
county, State of Maine. His parents, Daniel S. and Sarah V. Puring-
ton, were conscientious people, whose honesty, integrity and virtue made
a beautiful example for their children, and whose tenderness and love
developed into robust life the better natures of their family. Eight years
after the birth of our subject, his father removed to Massachusetts, and
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 541
a large portion of his childhood days was spent in Amesbury in that
State. Beside enjoying the privileges of the New England common
school, he was a student at Oak Grove Seminary, Vassalboro, Maine,
where he completed an excellent education.
At the breaking out of the war in 1861, he was a resident of New
Jersey, in which State he had been engaged in teaching for two years.
As would naturally be supposed, the call of his country for men to defend
its honor and preserve the life of the government was at once responded
to by young Purington, and on the twenty-third of August, 1861, he
enlisted at Trenton, in the Fourth New Jersey Volunteers, and went into
active service, performing his duties with that strict fidelity which has
distinguished him in whatever he has ever undertaken. On the eighth
of January, 1863, .he was commissioned First Lieutenant and appointed
Regimental Quartermaster. This position he resigned, however, in the
month of December following, for the purpose of accepting a similar
position in the Seventh United States Colored Infantry. January 8th»
1864, he was commissioned by President Lincoln a captain, and Assistant
Quartermaster United States Volunteers, being assigned to duty with
Major-General Godfrey Weitzel, commanding the Twenty-fifth Army
Corps. With this command he went to Texas, where he remained until
November, 1865, when he was ordered home, and was mustered out of
the service January 8th, 1866.
In April, 1869, Mr. Purington arrived in Chicago, with the view of
making it his future home, and entered into the lumber business, which
he prosecuted for three years. In April, 1872, he became interested in
the manufacture of brick, and has been in that business down to the
present time, being the senior member of the well known firm of Pur-
ington & Kimbell. For the last three years, at least, this firm has done
the heaviest business in its line, in Chicago.
In the Fall of 1879, without personal solicitation or effort, Mr.
Purington was nominated for the office of County Commissioner for
Cook county, and was elected by over five thousand majority. In the
year following he was unanimously elected President of the Board of
Commissioners, and both as a member of the board and as its president^
he has performed his duties in a manner most creditable to himself and
satisfactory to the county, an achievement not easy of accomplishment^
even with the best of abilities and the best intentions. But he has
achieved success as an official by following the same line of action that
has led to the achievement of the most satisfactory success in his own
private business, the distinguishing feature of his course being strict
integrity, clean cut honesty and an industrious application to the discharge
of duty. A community's interests are always safe in the hands of such
men, for they not only have the mind to discern the proper course to
pursue, but the honesty of purpose and energy to pursue it; and while
his own private affairs are quite sufficient to engross his attention, it is
altogether probable that the community will demand of Mr. Purino-ton
542 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
in the future that sacrifice' which any business man must make if he accept
public office, by summoning him to the discharge of the duties of other
official positions.
Our subject was married at Madison, in the State of New York,
December 13th, 1866, to M. Louise Chamberlain, and in his domestic
relations is favored by the fortune which seems to have graciously smiled
upon all the undertakings and relations of his life. Yet a young man,
and happily surrounded at home, in business and as a public officer;
steadily achieving, and with an ambition to do what he does do well, it
is not likely that even his past record is more than a beginning of an
aggregate of the most satisfactory achievements yet to be wrought.
543
ORRIN L. MANN.
The subject of this sketch holds honorable rank among those who by
natural force of character, integrity and honesty have risen to distinction
in the great city of Chicago. Endowed with superior natural abilities,
self-educated in the sense that he has laboriously commanded the best
means of self-culture, tenacious in the pursuit of objects whose accom-
plishment he has deemed to be in his line of duty, and public spirited in
the broadest and most patriotic meaning of the term, he long since
attracted! public attention, and won the public esteem. Early identifying
himself with the fortunes of the young city of the prairies, his career
has been blended with the latter's history for nearly a third of a century,
and, indeed, has been a conspicuous and attractive portion of it. Much
in public life, and having acquitted himself in every official position that
he has held, in such manner as to insure for himself universal esteem and
confidence, the fact of itself indicates not only a superior executive ability,
but a well balanced and robust character. That much of his unclouded
record, too, was made in those troublesome and ill-jointed times in our
country's history, when apparently the strongest character frequently
failed in power of resistance to the unusual temptations which are con-
comitant with turbulent periods, is still further evidence of the sterling
worth of the man. The great secret of his success may be said to have
been his unswerving devotion in the discharge of the higher obligations
which rest upon men. Whatever his hands have found to do, he has
done well, and when the nature of the performance would admit, he
has really acquitted himself brilliantly.
General Mann was born in Chardon, Geauga county, Ohio, November
25th, 1833. His parents were Benjamin J. and Joanna Mann, who came
from revolutionary stock, the fathers of both Mr. and Mrs. Mann having
served in the Colonial army in the war for American independence.
Soon after the birth of Orrin, his father removed to the State of Michigan,
where he died in 1843. Until twenty years of age he was engaged in
farm life, an occupation which was entirely too monotonous and circum-
scribed for a mind and ambition like his. At this age, therefore, he
turned his attention to mechanical pursuits, apprenticing himself to the
trade ot blacksmithing at Ann Arbor, which, however, in consequence of
a severe injury he was compelled to abandon after a year's service. Next
we find him fired with a desire to obtain a scholastic education, and in spite
544 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
\
of poverty and the responsibility of helping to support his mother, he
began a preparatory course of study at the Albion Seminary, Michigan.
But his straightened circumstances necessitated the abandonment of his
studies at this place, after two years of heroic application, and he came
to Chicago — in 1853 — where for a time he was engaged in teaching in
a private school, not forgetting to employ his leisure time in self-instruc-
tion. In 1856, seeing his way clear to enter upon a collegiate course, he
entered college at Ann Arbor, but was compelled in his Junior year, by
reason of ill-health, to again abandon his studies, upon doing which he once
more returned to Chicago, where the breaking out of the war of the
rebellion in 1861 found him.
Young Mann's patriotism was aroused to the highest pitch by the
firing upon Sumter, and he at once enlisted as a private. Not content,
however, with enlisting himself, he sought opportunities to enlist others,
and soon succeeded in raising a company for the Thirty-ninth Illinois
Regiment, which is known in history as the Yates Phalanx, taking its
name from the War Governor of the State. This grand regiment of
brave soldiers, which during four years of service made a record which
that of no other regiment in our great army eclipsed, was first tendered,
by advice of Governor Yates, to Generals Lyon and Blair, for service in
Missouri. The offer was not accepted, however, but the refusal only
nerved Mann to greater exertion, and he soon sought an audience with
President Lincoln and his Secretary of War. The President believed
with Mr. Mann, that more men were needed, and was grateful for the
offer of the Thirty-ninth, but said that he had determined to accept no
more until Congress had perfected a military bill. On the President's
advice he remained in Washington, living upon Mr. Lincoln's assurance
"that the boys from Illinois would beyond a doubt soon have a chance to
fight." Congress convened July 4th, 1861, but it was not until the
twenty-third day of that month, after the Bull Run disaster, that Mr. Mann
was summoned to the War Department and directed to fill up his regiment
at once. Having accomplished this with remarkable vigor and prompti-
tude, he was elected and commissioned Major thereof.
The career of the Thirty-ninth is historical, and the barest outline
of its record is vividly suggestive. From Illinois to Missouri; thence to
Maryland; soon after to Virginia, on the upper Potomac — these rapid
movements bring it fairly into the field of action. Major Mann was
stationed with a small detachment of his command at Burkley Springs,
to guard the approach to the Baltimore and Ohio railroad. January 2cl,
1862, with less than a company of infantry and a few horse, he met, near
Bath, the advanc.e brigade of "Stonewall" Jackson's entire army. Falling
back, after a brisk fight in which thirteen men were lost, to Burkley, he
tenaciously held that strong and vital position all the next day with his
three companies. Late in the evening, after being nearly surrounded,
he skillfully retreated to Sir John's Run, where he forded the Potomac,
the water four feet deep and ice fringing both shores. This stubborn
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 545
resistance, which retarded the advance of the enemy and enabled other
troops to cross the river, secured Major Mann's elevation to the rank
•of Lieutenant-Colonel, together with a commendatory notice from General
Kelly, commanding. He was subsequently made a member of General A.
S. Williams' staff, but was permitted, at his urgent request, to accompany
his regiment to Western Virginia, returning whence he participated in
the first battle of Winchester, the scene of "Stonewall" Jackson's first
and only thorough defeat. In May, the Thirty-ninth was sent, under
•Colonel Mann's command, into the Luray Valley to seize two important
bridges, which he accomplished after a severe engagement. During the
latter part of the year, while the regiment was stationed at Suffolk, Colonel
Mann served as president of a General Court Martial. In January, 1863,
he accompanied his command to Newbern, North Carolina, and thence
to Hilton Head, South Carolina.
The first to land on Folly Island, the Yates Phalanx bore an energetic
hand in constructing the works by which Morris Island was subsequently
reduced. In the siege of Forts Wagner and Gregg, Colonel Mann bore
-a prominent part, leading the brigade which entered these strongholds.
He informed General Gilmore by telegraph that the rebels were prepar-
ing to desert Wagner, and requested permission to move upon their works.
The request was granted, and the result — about sixty prisoners and forty
pieces of artillery being taken, with slight loss — was announced to General
Gilmore in the following laconic telegram, which went the rounds of the
papers, and which might have served both statesmen and generals since
as a model of economic as well as graphic conciseness: "The Field Officer
•of the Trenches sends his compliments and congratulations from the bomb-
proof of fallen Fort Wagner, to the General commanding, and wishes to
assure him that his confidence in God and General Gilmore is unshaken."
Colonel Mann passed the most of the following Winter in the recruit-
ing service, with headquarters at Chicago. His patriotic and effective
speeches in Northern Illinois drew the best of citizenship to fill anew the
exhausted ranks of the Yates Phalanx.
On the expiration of its term of service, the Thirty-ninth came home,
February, 1864; but the war was not yet over, and the entire command
re-enlisted, after a month's furlough, and returned to the field as "veterans."
They were assigned to duty on the James, under General B. F. Butler.
On the fourteenth of May the Colonel of the regiment, afterward
Major-General T. O. Osborne, at present our resident Minister to the
Argentine Confederation, was seriously wounded at the head of his
brigade, and on the following day the Major and a large number of line
officers were either killed or wounded. Lieutenant-Colonel Mann was
the only field officer remaining, and he had serious work on hand at once.
Three days afterward, General Longstreet, having advanced along the line
of Bermuda Hundred, began intrenching his position. The situation
was critical. The Union forces had been driven back from a vital posi-
tion, which must be at once regained. The Thirty-ninth was ordered
546 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
to assume the advance, and came back with a large number of prisoners,
among them a Brigadier-General. For his gallantry in this decisive
action, displayed at the expense of a gunshot wound in his left leg, below
the knee, both bones being shattered, Colonel Mann was brevetted
Brigadier-General. His wound, which was very serious, kept him in
hospital until Autumn. But his nature craved activity. He was impatient
to be at work when there was so much to be done; and so he served, as
soon as convalescent, on a Court Martial at Fortress Monroe.
January 1st, 1865, being still incapacitated for the field, General Mann
was assigned to staff duty under Major-General Ord, and served as
Provost Marshal of the District of Eastern Virginia, with headquarters
at Norfolk. The position, though occupied by a soldier disabled for
service in the field, was no sinecure. It required intense application and
continuous activity, in every sense save that of locomotion. The Provost
Marshal was Mayor and Common Council in one, administering, at a
most critical period, the affairs of a city of mixed population numbering
twenty thousand; superintendent of an extensive public school system
established by the wisdom of General Butler; general superintendent
of a large military prison, and superintendent of the City Gas Company.
These were the specific, definable duties, and they were scarcely a moiety
compared with the indefinite range, touching every phase of social or
municipal life, which were none the less exacting in that they were
informal and in a great measure voluntary. To discharge duties so varied,
complicated and delicate, required both commanding executive ability
and an endowment and habit of tact, decision and readiness which if few
men possess, fewer still can acquire. Such, however, was the union in
General Mann's whole administration of official authority and personal
influence, respectively strengthening and mitigating each other, that he
received the hearty approbation both of his superior officers and of the
citizens of his district, almost without distinction.
Richmond having fallen, the Confederacy having yielded to superior
force and wisdom in field and council, it was supposed that local military
rule could be greatly modified if not wholly foregone; and General
Mann, now promoted to a full colonelcy, was ordered to join his com-
mand at Richmond. The Norfolk marshalship was abolished, and the
city turned over to the civil authorities. But it soon became apparent
that the political elements were too profoundly disturbed to be controlled
by any rule less absolute than that which had conquered a nominal peace.
Norfolk was filled with freed men, while the municipality was practically
in the hands of conquered but not converted rebels. Between the police
especially and the negroes, frequent collisions occurred, and society was
rapidly degenerating to the anarchy which precedes and sometimes
justifies despotism. Upon the order of Major-General Terry, then
commanding the Department, General Mann was re-assigned to his old
district, with plenary powers, according to his brevet rank. He had two
regiments of infantry, one of cavalry, and a battery of artillery at his
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 547
command. The police of Norfolk and Portsmouth were deposed, and
details from the military took their place. A military commission was
organized before which loyal citizens, whether white or black, unable
to get justice at the hands of the civil courts, had a prompt and fair
hearing. But few days passed ere life, liberty and good order were once
more secure throughout the contumacious district. A circular, abounding
in plain and practical advice, was issued by General Mann and distributed
among the freedmen, from which we take the following, as illustrative
of the merit of the document, and as being the soundest advice which man
as such or as a statesman could give under the circumstances: "Remem-
ber that, being free, you must become your own supporters. You no
longer have masters to provide for you; by your own industry and
economy you must now live. * * * Do not rely too much on the
government for support. Your freedom and our national existence have
already cost the government millions of money. * * * Remember,
meantime, that the government is ever ready to protect you, assist and
encourage you in your freedom, and in your every laudable effort to elevate
yourselves in the scale of human existence. For this purpose the Freed-
men's Bureau is established, * * * to furnish protection to the
weak, work for the poor, and houses and rations for the old, infirm and
absolutely needy, and help you as far as possible to educate yourselves
and your children. It is established to do for you what a wise father
would do for his children. * * * Cultivate friendly relations with
your former masters. * * * Those persons may yet be among
your best friends; they need your labor now, and they will need it for
years to come. You need the remuneration which they will give you
now, and you will need it for years to come. * * * Abandon at
once the foolish idea which many of you have imbibed, that cities and
towns alone can furnish you means of support. * * * Leave vour
crowded huts and houses in cities and towns, and, as many of you as
can, go to the country. * * * But, if you must stay in cities and
towns, be not idle, but follow the noble example of enterprise and indus-
try that many of your race have set you. Let your boys enter shops
and learn trades; let them become workers of wood, iron, leather and
cloth. * * * Let your girls braid bonnets and hats, manage sewing
machines, knit socks and control kitchens. Let each Saturday night
find a few cents, a few dimes or a few dollars laid aside from your honest
earnings for future use. * * * Cultivate and advocate the highest
respect for the marriage relation. Discountenance at once the loose,
irresponsible manner in which many of you, owing to the peculiarities
of your former situation, are now living, * * * and thus take one
step further from the barbarous regions from whose borders you have
lately escaped. * * * Be not over anxious to vote at present, hut
let your anxiety be rather to learn how to read and write. * * * Buy
books and read them. Go to the schools; attend your churches, and lose
no opportunity to gain information and secure knowledge."
548 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
buch was the policy, exhibiting malice toward none and charity
toward all, which soon reduced rebellious elements, winning even more
than it compelled. The district was thoroughly "reconstructed" when
General Mann took final leave of it, in December, 1865, to be mustered
out with his regiment at Springfield, Illinois.
After the war General Mann received the appointment as Collector
of Internal Revenue for the First District of Illinois, and while serving
in that official position showed the same prominent characteristics that
distinguished his services in the war. After leaving this office he engaged
for a time in the business of brick making, and did an extensive business.
In the fire of 1871, however, he was a loser, and through the failure
of many of his customers, lost heavily in the great panic. After this great
calamity, he entered upon the real estate business, and is yet a member
of the firm of Mann & Congdon, engaged in that business.
From its first organization, General Mann has been identified with
the Republican party, and has always been active in politics. He was
the original organizer of the famous "Ballot Box Guards," an organiza-
tion created to preserve the purity of the ballot box, and one which has
done much, good in that direction.
He served a term in our State legislature several years ago, and was
just closing a term of active, intelligent coroner's life, when he was elected
sheriff of his great county. This position he now holds, and the affairs
of the responsible office will doubtless continue to be successfully and
faithfully administered.
General Mann was married at Ann Arbor, Michigan, August, 1862,
to Adelia A. Sawyer, and three children have blessed the union: May,
fourteen years of age, June, twelve, and Maud, ten. In his domestic and
private life he entertains the same rigid regard for integrity and honesty
of conduct that has distinguished him as a public man. Personally he is
affable in manner and readily approachable, winning the friendship of all
with whom he comes in contact, and who can appreciate a generous
heart and a noble nature.
Thus closes the sketch of a life which has been crowded with impor-
tant events, and distinguished for success and usefulness. Locally
considered, few men have made so prominent a record or one so free
from taint or blemish and in a national point of view, while there were
hundreds and thousands of brave men upon the same field, battling for
the honor of the same flag, as upon which and under which General
Mann achieved fame as a soldier, not one acquitted himself more heroically,
patriotically or judiciously.
ALVIN HULBERT.
Some men are so evenly balanced that their lives appear to be utterly
free from friction, and they reach success by a course as steady as that of
the sun from its rising to its zenith. Under their easy manipulation, but
through masterly tact and sleepless enterprise, whatever they undertake
develops grandly and regularly, always suggesting an unusual endow-
ment of natural ability. Such men are ever reliable when society demands
their services, for they are weak in no particular and under no circum-
stances. Unusual events of an exciting character never unduly elate
them, and circumstances of an adverse nature never depress them.
Like the flow of the river their lives glide regularly on; like the coming
and going of the seasons, their course is definitely fixed, and like the
glow of the stars, their acts are characterized by a modesty that is attractive
and yet with a power that makes their individuality always conspicuous.
Alvin Hulbert, the subject of this sketch, belongs to this not over
crowded class of men. Prominence and affluence are usually attained
through what may be properly termed flashes of character and action —
a blazing of energy and talent in some one direction, and a friction which
is self-exhausting and neither so beautiful to behold nor so strengthening
to the best interests of the community as a calmer and steadier achieve-
ment of the same ends. But from his boyhood days until the present,
our subject has shown instead of such a one-sided development of ability
and enterprise, a solid and charming entirety of character development,
which has won universal respect and confidence. As a business man,
citizen, neighbor and friend, he has been and is a constant exhibition of
honor, integrity and honesty. Unostentatious and unassuming, he is yet
firm in his convictions and courageous in the discharge of duty; quiet in
business matters, as he is in social intercourse, yet he possesses an executive
ability which is seldom equaled and never surpassed, and amiable and
courteous as either host, acquaintance or friend, his place is not easy to fill.
Mr. Hulbert was born in Rochester, New York. January, 1820, and
is the son of Alvin and Margaret Hulbert. His father was a hotel man,
keeping "taverns" in Rochester and vicinity, and thus Mr. Hulbert was
literally born in the business in which he has been so successful and made
for himself such an enviable name. The common school of the period
furnished him with all the book education he ever had, but his natural
energy of character and quickness of perception readily built upon this
55° CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
imperfect foundation, and secured him an excellent business education.
His first practical identification with the hotel business was in 1850,
when he entered a hotel at Avon Springs, New York, in the capacity of
clerk, and served therein for three successive seasons. He next became
the first agent of the railroad which was constructed through Le Roy,
at which place his father, at the time, was the proprietor of a hotel, but
not liking the business, we next find him in a clerkship in the Eagle
Hotel, Rochester, then kept by Alderman Dewey Walbridge. He remained
in this position until 1857, wrien he severed his connection with the Eagle,
and going to Lafayette, Indiana, became the proprietor of a hotel in that
city. Selling out his business in Lafayette, he came to Chicago in 1859,
and accepted the position of cashier in the old Sherman House, where
he remained until the demolishment of that house, preparatory to rebuild-
ing was commenced, when he became cashier of the old Matteson House,
kept by C. H. Bissell, afterward his partner in the Sherman. Upon the
completion of the Sherman he resumed his position as cashier of the house,
under Gage & Waite, filling that position until April, 1865, when he
became the cashier of the Tremont House, remaining here until the great
fire of 1871. Upon the rebuilding of the Tremont after this calamity,
he returned to it and became its manager.
In 1875 Mr. Hulbert entered into a co-partnership with C. H. Bissell,
under the name of Bissell & Hulbert, and the firm became the proprietors
of the Sherman House. This co-partnership continued eight months and
until the death of Mr. Bissell, which, with that of his son, was caused by
a railroad accident in Vermont, the bodies of the unfortunate victims
being entirely consumed by the burning of a sleeping car. After this sad
and unfortunate event, Mr. Hulbert purchased the interest of his late
partner in the house, and has since been the sole proprietor of the Sher-
man, which under his management has become one of the most popular
and famous hotels in the country, commanding a patronage which is
limited only by the extent of its commodious accommodations.
In the Spring of 1880 his popularity and excellent business reputa-
tion attracted to him the attention of the Republicans of the Twelfth
Ward, in which he resides, and they placed him in nomination for the
office of alderman, to which he was elected by a handsome majority,
and of which he is proving and will prove a judicious and valuable
occupant. A city cannot have too many such men in the official positions
which it has to fill.
Mr. Hulbert was married at Rochester, New York, in 1868, to Emma
T. Drake, and there have been, born unto them five children — Leila M.,
born 1869; Jessie. D., born 1871; Julia T., born 1874; Emma Centennia,
born 1876, and Alvin, Jr., born 1878.
The unruffled prosperity which has attended the career of Mr. Hul-
bert has been eminently merited, and the high esteem in which he is
held, not only in Chicago, but among the thousands who know him in
all parts of the country, is the natural result of his uprightness of char-
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 551
acter and urbanity of manner. Of the Sherman House and its proprietor
the traveling public speak in terms of unstinted praise, and although the
location of the house is most central and in all respects favorably situated,
it is more directly indebted for its high position among the first-class
hotels of the country, to the executive ability and generous management
of its proprietor, than to anything else.
Personally, Mr. Hulbert is a gentleman of commanding physique,
looks much younger than he really is, and is a picture of fine health, and
of the traits of character which distinguish him. In the prime of life,
many years are still before him, in which his friends and the public expect
that he will make the even and satisfactory progress that he has made in
the past.
552
CHAPTER XLIII.
BRIEF BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
It would require a huge volume to contain even the names of the
men who in the city of Chicago have achieved enduring fame during
the last fifty years; and almost without exception they have been men
who have fought the battle of life single handed, or in other words, have
been self-made men in the strictest sense of the term. Many of them
are yet young in years, but some of them have long since reached the
top of the hill and are now near the valley on the other side. John
Wentworth has achieved a national reputation, and rendered the city of
his adoption signal service, for which it reverences his name. During
an exceedingly active life, a large portion of which has been passed in
official position, Mr. Wentworth is universally accounted an unswervingly
honest man, and his fame is not clouded by the faintest shadow of scandaL
He was born in Sandwich, New Hampshire, March 5th, 1815, and is
consequently now in his sixty-seventh year. He came to Chicago in
1836, has been Mayor of the city, a representative to Congress, and an
exceedingly prominent man during his entire career in the West. Begin-
ning without capital, except an excellent mind and strong character, he
has won not only fame, but has accumulated fortune, and is now one of the
most wealthy of our citizens. Of late years he has not held public office,
but his counsel is invariably sought in emergencies which affect the public
interests.
Dr. George E. Shipman is a man of entirely different stamp from
Mr. Wentworth, but is a citizen who has not only served his city well,,
but in so doing has proven a ministering angel to helpless humanity. It
is to his efforts that the existence of that most excellent institution, the
Foundlings' Home, is due, and it is to his patience and executive ability
that it owes its efficiency. Finely cultured and with that profound
knowledge of medical science which would have insured him a most
lucrative practice, he sacrificed all the glowing prospects of wealth, and
its accompaniments to establish "his home for the care of the helpless
and the disowned, thus not only mercifully ministering to the necessities
of a class which was unable to care for itself, but also preventing a large
amount of crime in the community. Dr. Shipman is now sixty-one years
of age, having been born in the city of New York, March 4th, 1820, and
no man deserves better of his fellow citizens, or enjoys more of their
esteem and confidence.
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 553
Among our most enterprising and deserving men of to-day is General
Alexander McClurg, a member of the great book firm of Janse'n, McClurg
& Compahy, the leading book house of the West, and a rival of some
of the oldest in the country. A Philadelphian by birth and education,
he is imbued with those clear cut principles which distinguish the Quaker
City, and to these owes much of his success in life. The business in
which he is engaged demands peculiarities of mind and character which
no other mercantile avocation requires. The highest success in this line
can be achieved only by one who has culture of mind and literary inclina-
tions, both of which are characteristics of General McClurg. He early
possessed himself of a classical education, and spent some time in the
study of law, but his health failing, he decided to leave home and seek
his fortune in the West. Accordingly he arrived in Chicago in the
Autumn of 1859, and immediately identified himself with the house of
which he is at present part proprietor, themknown, however, under the
name of S. C. Griggs & Company. During the war of the rebellion he
entered the military service of his country, as a private, and rose to the
rank of Adjutant General. His career has been a thoroughly honorable
and useful one not only to Chicago and the West but to the entire
country.
Samuel C. Griggs, the senior member of the firm above alluded to, and
now one of our oldest citizens, is a native of Tolland county, Connecticut.
When only twenty years of age he embarked in the book trade at Hamil-
ton, New York, and although without pecuniary means, his peculiar
fitness for the business was so marked that in six years he not only
established a fine business, but found that he could fill a much larger sphere
of usefulness. Not only did he learn this, but as is usually the case when
young men exhibit prominent talents, others learned it, and among them
a prominent New York publisher, who offered Mr. Griggs an equal
partnership in his house. This Mr. Griggs declined, but accepted an
offer from the same gentleman to enter into a co-partnership in Chicago.
In compliance with this arrangement he came here in 1848, and estab-
lished the house which became so famous under the name of S. C. Griggs
& Company, and still maintains its high reputation under the name of
Jansen, McClurg & Company. He is now retired, and is in the enjoy-
ment of his well earned wealth, and as a citizen and Christian commands
the respect of the entire community.
Franc B. Wilkie, at present editor of THE CHICAGO TIMES, residing
in London, England, has made his mark as a journalist, which compara-
tively few in this country have ever equaled. He was born July 2d, 1832,
in West Charlton, Saratoga county, New York, and has risen from low
station to his present prominence. When thirteen years old he ran away
from home, and became a driver on the Erie Canal for a season, at the
close of which, having been cheated out of his wages, he went to New
York City. Here for two years he bravely fought against poverty,
selling matches, newspapers, running errands, holding horses, and doing
554 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
anything honorable that presented. In his early days, too, he was by
turns farmer and blacksmith, and whatever he undertook he did well-
But in the midst of all his checkered career, hardships and discourage-
ments, he was a constant student and a great reader. In 1855, having
fitted himself for college unaided, he entered Union College. His first
newspaper experience was as editor of the DAILY STAR, at Schenectady,
New York, at a salary of four dollars per week. In 1856, he and a friend
commenced the publication of the DAILY NEWS, at Davenport, Iowa,
but neither having much practical experience or capital, the venture
proved a failure in the panic of the following year, and the paper was
disposed of. In the Summer of 1858, he published a campaign paper in
the interests of Stephen A. Douglas, at Elgin, Illinois, and in the Autumn
of the same year he became connected with the HERALD, at Dubuque,
Iowa. He now began to establish a reputation as a brilliant writer, and
during the war, as an armygcorrespondent, this reputation was most firmly
established. Since 1863 he has been connected with THE TIMES, and
now represents it in London.
George M. Pullman was born March 3d, 1831, in Chautauqtia county,
New York. At an early age he commenced business life in a furniture
establishment at Albion, in his native State, soon developing traits of
enterprise and industry. Upon the death of his father the care and sup-
port of the family devolved upon him, and was, perhaps, the immediate
cause of his seeking a wider and more profitable field of enterprise. He
contracted with the State to raise buildings along the line of the enlarge-
ment of the Erie Canal, and was engaged in this for about four years.
At the end of that time he removed to Chicago, arriving here in 1859,
and entered upon the work of bringing the city up to grade. At about
this time, too, he became connected with the sleeping car interests, his
attention having been attracted to the subject of providing better sleeping
accommodation for travelers, in the Spring of 1859. His first effort in
this line was to fit up with berths two old cars on the Chicago & Alton
road. From this small beginning the business has developed until
magnificent car palaces are upon every road. The fame of Pullman is
world-wide, and his fortune large.
Robert Collyer, while not now a resident of Chicago, was such for
so long a time, that the city feels that it has something of proprietorship
in him, and his life is such a marvelous development of sterling worth
from a very unpromising commencement, that a few words in regard to
it in this connection seems eminently appropriate, and will certainly be
very instructive. Mr. Collyer is a native of Yorkshire, England, and
was born December 8th, 1823. His father was a blacksmith, and the son
learned the same trade, at which he worked until he emigrated to
America, in 1850. Upon his arrival here he settled in a suburb of Phila-
delphia, and entered upon the business of hammer making. Early in
life he had become identified with the Methodist Church, and even
in England was what was called a lay preacher. In this country he con.
CHICAGO ANF> ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 555
tinued the work of an exhorter while he labored at his business. He
was self-educated, and through close application to reading and study, his
information was considerable. His theological inclinations were toward
liberality, and he finally got so far from the tenets of the Methodist
denomination, that the Conference, in January, 1859, deprived him of his
license to preach. That same year he came to Chicago to take charge
of the "ministry at large" under the auspices of the Unitarian Congrega-
tionalists. In May, of that year, he began to preach for Unity Church,
and occupied the position of pastor to that church until quite recently,
when he accepted a call to New York. He was one of the most popular
ministers and most popular men in Chicago. He rose by the strength
of his intellect, the purity of his character, and his industry, to the highest
round of the ladder, and he began at the very bottom. He was married
before coming to America, and his wife has passed through all the vary-
ing scenes which have distinguished his life, and now enjoys with him
his brilliant fame.
Silas B. Cobb is another of our self-made men and most substantial
citizens. He was born in Montpelier, Vermont, January 23d, 1812. He
had but limited opportunities for acquiring an education, but through
perseverance he succeeded in gaining sufficient knowledge, in and out of
school, for all mere practical purposes. When a boy he was apprenticed
to the shoemaker's trade, but he soon became disgusted with that, and
leaving his employer returned home. He was then placed to learn the
trade of a mason, but this did not suit him either, and his parents then
wisely concluded that they had better leave him to make his own selec-
tion of a trade, which he did, and learned that of a harness maker. In
course of time he became his own master, and worked as a journeyman
in his native town. Upon attaining his majority he concluded to come
West. Upon arriving in Chicago, he obtained employment for a few
weeks as a boss carpenter, although totally ignorant of the business.
However, he directed the workmen, and by keeping them at work, thus,
probably, really earned the two dollars and seventy-five cents a day
which he was to receive. It was finally discovered, however, that Mr.
Cobb was not a practical carpenter, and he was paid off and dismissed.
The amount that he had earned was forty dollars, and that was all the
money he had; in fact all that did not belong to him, for he owed some
borrowed money, which he promptly paid. He now hit upon the idea
of buying up the little stores and trinkets which emigrants from the East
brought with them for sale, and to sell them by auction to the Indians
and half-breeds. In this manner he soon accumulated enough to enable
him to launch out more widely, and building a frame structure, he opened
a harness shop, and here really began his highly successful business
career. In 1847 he sold out his shop and entered the boot, shoe, leather
and hide business. After three years of successful business in this line,
he retired from mercantile pursuits, and has since devoted his time princi-
pally to making investments, or managing large corporations. He has
556 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
been the Managing Director of the Chicago Gaslight and Coke Company,
and has held prominent positions in railroad and insurance enterprises.
Of late years, until quite recently, he has been the President of the South
Side horse railroad company, which owes its prosperity largely to his
ability and enterprise. Mr. Cobb is very wealthy.
Ellis Sylvester Chesbrough, the engineer who constructed the tunnel
which is a part of Chicago's water system, was born July 6th, 1813.
When only nine years of age financial reverses overtook his father, and
the son, whom the father had intended to liberally educate, was compelled
to give up his books and to apply himself to toil. But he was quick to
learn, and while he labored he applied himself profitably to study. From
nine to fifteen years of age, his duties were arduous, and he did not
attend school more than a year during the whole time. Finally he was
admitted to a company of engineers employed on the Baltimore & Ohio
railroad, and a grand field of knowledge and usefulness was opened to
him. The skilled engineers saw in the boy the merit which he really
possessed, and his anxiety to learn, and they furnished him every facility
for acquiring a knowledge of the business. In 1830, after two years of
service, he left the employ of the Baltimore & Ohio railroad, and entered
the service of the State of Pennsylvania, in the survey of the then pro-
jected Alleghany Portage railroad. In 1831 he joined the engineer corps
of General William G. McNeill, at Paterson, New Jersey, with which
he remained for eleven years, during which he was engaged in the duties
of his profession on the Paterson & Hudson River, the Boston & Provi-
dence and the Louisville, Charleston & Cincinnati railroads. He was
the engineer who superintended the construction of the Cochituate water
works in Boston. In 1855 he received the appointment of Chief Engineer
of the Board of Sewerage Commissioners of Chicago, and in October
of that year entered upon the discharge of the duties of that position.
In 1861 he was appointed Chief Engineer of the Board of Public Works.
Two years later his title was changed to City Engineer. The Chicago
water system is the grandest of all his achievements.
Joseph Russell Jones, President of the West Division Railway
Company, was born in Conneaut, Ohio, February lyth, 1823. His father
dying when the son was little more than a year old, left his widow and
young family with but slender means of support. When Joseph was thirteen
years of age his mother removed to Brockton, Winnebago county, Illinois,
and he was placed in a store in his native town. After two years of ser-
vice here, he determined to join his mother, and landed ia Chicago on
the nineteenth of August, 1838. Thence he went to Brockton, and
remained with the family for two years. In June, 1840, he went to
Galena, his entire capital consisting of one dollar. Here he clerked it
for awhile and was finally admitted to a partnership with his employer.
He has filled the offices of representative in the General Assembly and
Linked States Marshal for the Northern District of Illinois. He is now
among the wealthiest men of the city.
557
MARK SKINNER.
Mark Skinner was born at Manchester, Vermont, September I3th,
1813. His family connections date back to the very earliest days of New
England history, and, upon the maternal side, through the Pierpoints, he
is connected with one of the oldest and most famous of the great historic
families of England. His mother was the daughter of Robert Pierpoint,
and a double cousin of John Pierpoint, the poet. His father, Richard Skin-
ner, was a man of eminence, distinguished alike for his legal and political
abilities, whose name is prominent in the history of Vermont, having
held the various offices of State's Attorney for the county of Bennington,
Judge of Probate for the northern district of the same county, member
of the legislature, Governor of the State, member of Congress, and for
many years Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the State.
The son fitted himself for college and entered the University of
Vermont, at Middlebury, in 1830, and graduated in 1833, having matricu-
lated in advance of his class. Inheriting from his father a predilection
for the law, immediately upon his graduation he marked out for himself
the same professional course which his father had pursued with such
marked success, and from 1833 to 1836, studied his profession, at Saratoga
Springs, with Judge Ezek Cowen, the eminent jurist and author, and
Nicholas Hill, one of the most accomplished lawyers in the annals of the
New Yoyk bar. One year of the three was spent at the New Haven
Law School, attached to Yale College, under the instruction of Judges
Dagget and Hitchcock. At the expiration of his term of study, he was
contemplating a co-partnership with Mr. Hill, but tempting pecuniary
affairs, with other circumstances, combined to change these plans, and his
attention was drawn westward to the young city of Chicago.
He came to CU cago in July, 1836. He was admitted to the bar of
Illinois immediately upon his arrival, and entered upon the active practice
of the law in the Autumn of that year, associated with George A. O.
Beaumont, as partner. In 1839-40, during the mayoralty of Alexander
Loyd, he was elected City Attorney, and transacted the law business of
the city with eminent success. He was Master in Chancery for Cook
county for many years, but his first purely political appointment was that
of United States District Attorney, by President Tyler, to succeed Hon-
orable Justin Butterfield, the district then embracing the entire State.
Having held the office and familiarized himself with its routine of duties,
558 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
it was only natural that he should desire to retain it, and when Mr. Folk's
administration came in, he sought a second term, his claim being contested
by Honorable I. N. Arnold. The contest between the two applicants
was a very protracted and animated one — so animated, indeed, that a
compromise was effected by conferring the office upon a third party — but
the struggle had given Mr. Skinner a satisfactory view of the descents
a man must make to obtain the Federal patronage, and he resolved that
this struggle for Federal office should be his last.
Mr. Skinner was elected a member of the legislature in 1846, the
session being held from the first Monday in December, 1846, until March
ist, 1847. ^e was made Chairman of the Committee on Finance, at
that time the most important committee in the House. During the time
that he occupied this position, he drew up and procured the passage
through the House of a bill re-funding the State debt — a bill which was
far-reaching in its influence upon the finances of the State. It reduced
all the multiplied forms of State indebtedness — there being six or eight
different styles of State bonds — into convenient and manageable shape,
ascertained the limit of the debt, and effectually cut off the possibility
of frauds in emitting new and unauthorized bonds.
In 1851, Mr. Skinner was elected Judge of the Cook County Court
of Common Pleas, now the Superior Court of the City of Chicago, over
John M. Wilson, the opposition candidate, and declined a re-election in
1853, on account of ill-health.
We now come to another phase of Judge Skinner's life, impersonal
in its results, but one of the most important in his career as a public
citizen. On the ninth of January, 1861, the Secretary of War issued an
order, appointing certain gentlemen "a Commission of Inquiry and Ad-
vice in respect of the Sanitary Interests of the United States Forces."
Four prominent citizens of Chicago were named by this Commission to
be associate members, but it soon appeared they were unable, on account
of professional engagements, to bestow the requisite time and attention
upon sanitary duties. At this juncture, Dr. J. S. New bury, "Associate
Secretary for the West," arrived in Chicago and endeavored to organize
the associate members into a Branch Commission, but this project also
failed, for similar reasons. Subsequently, at a meeting of citizens called
by E. W. Blatchford, the associate members appointed by the United
States Sanitary Commission publicly resigned their positions, and all
present united in choosing "a committee of seven, to constitute the
Sanitary Commission of Chicago." The committee was composed of
the following gentlemen: Mark Skinner, Reverend W. W. Patton, D. D.,
Reverend O. H.- Tiffany, D. D., E. W. Blatchford, Ralph N. Isham, M.
D., Colonel J. D. Foster, and James Ward. On the same evening, the
committee went into session and effected an organization, by electing
Judge Skinner, President; Reverend O. H. Tiffany, D. D., Vice Presi-
dent, and E. WT. Blatchford, Corresponding Secretary. Thus the "Chicago
Sanitary Commission," afterward, when it had grown from a local to a
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 559
general organization, styled the "Northwestern Sanitary Commission,"
had its origin. Mr. Skinner held this responsible position until the early
part of 1864, performing all the arduous and exacting duties of his posi-
tion without any pecuniary compensation, direct or indirect, when he
was obliged to resign on account of a dangerous and protracted attack
of typhoid fever.
In the organization and direction of charitable institutions, also, Judge
Skinner has always been prominent. He was one of the founders of the
Chicago Reform School, and was made first President of the Board of
Directors, a position for which he was eminently qualified, and which he
held for many years. To the organization of this excellent institution
he devoted his time and personal attention without stint. He visited and
inspected all the prominent reformatory institutions of the Eastern
and Middle States, and carefully studied the documentary records of
similar schools in England, France and Germany. The result was a clear
conviction that the family system of reforming juvenile offenders was
infinitely preferable to the congregated system in practice in this country.
He labored zealously to effect this change, and finally succeeded in graft-
ing the system upon our own institution.
Judge Skinner has also been actively identified with the railroad
interests of Chicago, and by his clear judgment and financial ability has
done much to perfect that great system of transportation and travel which,
more than all else, has conduced to give Chicago its present commercial
greatness. His efforts in this direction were more especially given to the
old Galena and the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy roads, in each of
which he has been a Director.
560
ELISHA S. WADSWORTH.
Elisha S. Wadsworth was born in New Hartford, Connecticut, May
loth, 1813. His father was Tertius Wadsworth, who was actively
engaged in mercantile pursuits during most of his life, and died in Hart-
ford in 1872. The early part of the life of the subject of this sketch-was
spent in Connecticut, where he received a good education. He removed
to Chicago in the Summer of 1836, and engaged in moneyed and real
estate transactions, in company with his brother, Julius Wadsworth,
and the late Thomas Dyer.
In 1839 Mr. Wadsworth embarked in the wholesale dry goods
business in Chicago, with his brother Julius, under the firm name
of E. S. & J. Wadsworth, which business was continued until 1841, when
his brother went to Europe, and on his return, in 1842, a new firm was
organized under the name of Wadsworth, Dyer & Chapin, who for sev-
eral years were engaged in the largest mercantile and produce operations
of any firm in Chicago. In 1846, his brother Julius having disposed of
his interest in the Chicago business, established himself in New York, and
Elisha continued the wholesale business in connection with W. H. Phelps,
under the name of Wadsworth, Phelps & Company. At a subsequent
period Francis B. Cooley, of Hartford, Connecticut, became a partner
in the business, and the firm name was changed to Cooley, Wadsworth
& Company, and continued business under that name until 1852, when
John V. Farwell, who had occupied the position of book-keeper in the
house, was admitted as a partner, and the name of the firm was changed
to Cooley, Farwell & Company. In 1861 Mr. Wadsworth sold out his
interest in the mercantile business to his partners, and discontinued
his active connection with the house. His interest in the old firm, how-
ever, became the subject of serious litigation with his former partners,
growing out of misunderstanding in relation to their individual accounts.
These differences, however, were finally adjusted, and the subject of this
sketch retired from commercial pursuits.
After his retirement he engaged in some real estate and other enter-
prises until his failing health rendered it necessary for him to entirely
withdraw from active business. He was one of the projectors of the
Galena & Chicago Union railroad, and for several years one of its direc-
tors. He was president of the branch road extending to Aurora, which
branch now forms part of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy railroad.
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 561
He was also one of the projectors of the Chicago & Milwaukee rail-
road, and a director in the company up to the time when it was absorbed
by the Chicago & Northwestern Railway Company. He was also one
of the parties connected with the construction of the new railroad from
Chicago to Milwaukee, which was subsequently absorbed by the Chicago>
Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway Company.
Since his retirement from active business, he has been occupied in
conducting some agricultural affairs, for which pursuit in early life he had
great taste. His active connection with the leading enterprises of the
city of Chicago for the past forty years, brought him in contact with
the leading business men in this country, and his character for strict
integrity and high moral sense was always recognized as of the highest
standard.
Mr. Wadsworth is one of four brothers, of which he is the oldest.
His next younger brother, Julius Wadsworth, has for the past thirty
years resided in New York, and is at present the Vice President of the
Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway Company, and at the head of
the financial management of that great enterprise. His two younger
brothers, T. Walter Wadsworth and Philip Wadsworth, reside in Chi-
cago, and are engaged in active business pursuits.
Mr. Wadsworth was married at Hadley, Massachusetts, in 1842, to
Charlotte, fourth daughter of Reverend John Woodbridge, D. D., and has
four surviving children, one daughter and three sons. His oldest son, Elisha
S. Wadsworth, was a volunteer in the Union army for the defense of his
country against the Southern rebellion. He rose to the rank of Captain
of Volunteers; but about the close of the war contracted disease in the
South and died in 1866, having given his life to maintain the government
which his ancestors fought to establish.
56-
JOHN KNIFFIN RUSSELL.
In the subject of the following sketch we find the elements of success
in life and of useful and ornamental manhood developed to an unusual
degree. With a limited book education, his natural strength and quick-
ness of intellect and energy of character readily overcame this deficiency,
and his integrity won universal confidence and insured him against failure
in the undertakings of life. While education is desirable, as one of the
strong weapons in the arena of business, it is nevertheless a fact that not
only in Chicago, but in the world at large, the men who have made the
most pronounced impression upon their times and succeeded best, have
been those whose early education was neglected to a greater or less extent.
But this does not argue that they were uneducated. Ignorance cannot
keep abreast with intelligence in the hotly contested race of business
activity, and whenever a man is found who has raised himself above the
level, in influence or wealth, it will be concluded that although his experi-
ence in the school-house may have been exceedingly limited, he has
succeeded by arduous application, and with experience as a teacher, in
learning what others may have secured under more favorable circum-
stances. Such men have absolutely carved their own way to position
and fortune, and whatever they have accomplished is a monument to
human pluck and character and an evidence of natural endowments of
superior power and brilliancy. It is of such a man that we now write — •
One who has set a fine example to the world, not only in the exhibition
of remarkable enterprise, which has been crowned with abundant success,
but also as a conscientious and upright member of society, faithfully dis-
charging all the duties which the various relations of life impose.
John Kniffin Russell is one of a family of twelve children, eight of
whom are still living, and is the son of Timothy D. Russell and Eliza Tate.
His father was born in Utica, New York, the grandfather of our subject
being one of the first settlers in that place, and built either the first or
second house in it. The family was of sterling Massachusetts and Con-
necticut stock, and the great grandfather of our subject linked his name
with the struggle for American independence, being a faithful captain
in the Continental army. Wrhen the wife of this old revolutionary hero
was nearly a hundred years old, she endeavored to secure from the gov-
ernment the back pay due him, but failed by reason of his commission —
the necessary evidence of service — having been destroyed by fire. The
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 563
father of our subject finally settled in the British Provinces, and he was
born in Prince Edward county, Ontario, in 1825. When John was but
six years of age the family removed to a location about fifty miles east
of Toronto, Canada, and settled in an unbroken forest, a fact which will
account for the imperfection of early education to which reference has
been made. The children were compelled to travel to a log school-house
two miles distant, in which the only source of warmth was a fire in an
open fireplace at one end of the room. The teacher, however, was
accustomed to say that such an arrangement was not without compensa-
tion, as it enabled him to reward studious habits by permitting the scholar
to stand with his back to the fire. Such were the only educational
facilities, however, furnished, and these were enjoyed for only two or
three months in Winter. But however limited his education, he was
filled with the spirit of independent manhood and a desire to make his
mark in the world. Neither of these the youth believed was consistent
with a residence in Canada. Born in a foreign dominion but of Ameri-
can parentage, he was by nature an American, and longed to identify
himself with the nation his ancestry aided in establishing, and this feeling
was constantly strengthened by the proscription which the family suffered
at the hands of the Canadians. Consequently leaving home with only
sixty-two dollars and sixty-five cents, he started for Chicago, crossing
Michigan on the old strap rail and in boat to New Buffalo, where he
landed about the tenth of October, 1849, anc^ trience came to Chicago.
The first Chicago man to whom he spoke was Ira Couch, who at
the time was standing upon the roof of the Tremont House. After a short
stay in the city, he went twenty-eight miles out on the Galena & Chicago
Union railroad, and thence staged it to the then ambitious town of St.
Charles, and from there went to the still more important town of Elgin,
Here he had the pleasure of witnessing the pomp and circumstance
attending the advent of the railroad into the place, an event which was
greeted with the ringing of bells, flying of flags, speeches and an original
poem by Attorney Giffbrd.
But Elgin did not seem to present such opportunities to the young
man as he was seeking, so on the first day of April, 1850, he again
entered Chicago, with the determination to make it the place of perma-
nent residence. The only capital, beside a good sound body, excellent
pluck, and as he often expresses it, "a boundless stock of ignorance," was-
four dollars and fifty cents, just enough to pay one week's board at the
Chicago Temperance House. But enterprising industry carried him
through, and in the Fall of 1850, he and Reuben Cleveland became
associated together, and commenced business, the firm being known as
Cleveland & Russell. At first the concern took small contracts for build-
ing docks on the river, and bridging, and in fact doing anything that
offered. Inexperience thwarted many of his designs and often curtailed
the profits of his undertakings; but never disheartened, and determined
to succeed, he courageously accepted his defeats and always struck once
564 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
more for victory. Very early, however, he found an old German
draughtsman, and placed himself under his instruction, believing that he
had found at last, a key to practical knowledge, and that proved to be the
fact.
The first really successful effort of the new firm was in the construc-
tion of the buildings for the new railroad to Rock Island, after having
had some experience on the west end of the Lake Shore & Michigan
Southern railroad, under the venerable and celebrated Chief Engineer,
John B. Jervis. On these two roads they made a considerable gain both
in means and experience.
In 1853 the entire works of the firm were destroyed by fire, and
they received no insurance. This was only one of a series of like mis-
fortunes which afterward befell them. In November, 1856, their works
were again entirely destroyed; in June, 1860 — on the day Mr. Lincoln
was nominated for the Presidency — another like catastrophe occurred; in
December, 1868, they suffered a loss by fire of forty-five thousand dollars,
and in November, 1868, their immense mills were swept out of existence
by the fire demon, causing a loss of a hundred and twenty-five thousand
dollars, and no insurance. Such extraordinary misfortune was well
calculated to dishearten even as courageous a man" as Mr. Russell, and
although the cloud for a moment seemed to be without a silvery lining, he
soon rallied. Beside these conflagrations the firm suffered an aggregate
loss of fifty thousand dollars from smaller fires previous to 1861. Since
his last large loss, Mr. Russell's firm has not attempted to do a large
business, but as if fated to be followed by the devouring element, he had
a small mill consumed in 1873 — resulting in a total loss — suffered a partial
loss of his mill in 1876, and in 1877 a storage house which was partially
destroved in 1874, again suffered partial destruction, making one of the
most astonishing fire records that ever checkered the business experience
of a single individual. After the firm of Cleveland & Russell was dis-
solved, Mr. Samuel I. Russell, a brother of our subject, took the place
of the retiring partner, and remained in the firm for a period of fourteen
years.
Mr. Russell's business enterprises have been so extensive that he has
had but little time or inclination to accept public office, but he was induced
to allow himself to be elected Supervisor of Cook county, in 1856, and
during his term of office the Board* paid fifteen per cent, on bonds bear-
ing ten per cent, interest because the county had the surplus money, and
could save about fifteen per cent, by thus doing and preventing the bonds
from maturing. From forty thousand to fifty thousand dollars was also
appropriated' during his term of office for the purpose of raising up and
adding another story to the old Court House, an appropriation which in
those days appeared very large.
Our subject was married July loth, 1856, to Mary J. Randall, of
Waukesha, Wisconsin, daughter of the late Phineas Randall, and sister
of Ex-Post Master General Alexander W. Randall, who was also the
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 565
War Governor of Wisconsin, having served two terms in that office.
Mrs. Russell is also a sister of the present Chief Justice of Florida. They
have three children: Edwin T., born in 1857, and who was educated at
Williams College; Mary Gertrude, born in 1862, and John Kent, born
m 1865. Their daughter Gertrude possesses great musical talent, and is
already an excellent pianist.
Mr. Russell is now doing quite a large business, and he is accustomed
to attribute his success — which has been great, notwithstanding the fiery
ordeal through which he has passed — to sticking to one thing, even
through losses and reverses, and in good times and bad times, and to
resolute pluck together with sterling honesty. Looking back upon the
record of an active business life, neither he nor the community in which
he has so long lived, can find a shadow to mar its beauty and grandeur.
566
WILLIAM TURTLE.
The subject of this sketch, the well known Chicago detective, was
born November 27th, 1829, at Haddenham, Isle of Ely, Cambridgeshire,
England, being the youngest son of Richard Turtle and Lydia Turtle,
nee Lydia Wayman, sister of Honorable William Wayman of this District,
the male progenitor having made an enviable reputation in the country
as a proprietor of stage coaches. The childhood of Captain Turtle was
passed in his native shire, where, after meeting the usual vicissitudes of
youth, he entered as a student the then quite famous private academy,
Mr. Thomas Barber, Principal, at Prospect House, Cambridge, where
he remained long enough to complete a commercial course and prepare
for college. He left a good record in the school, and carried off the prize
for penmanship at his last examination.
After leaving the academy the young Englishman served an appren-
ticeship to the dry goods business, which includes much more th:m is
usually classed in the term in this country. This calling was followed, after
the expiration of his season of probation, by a visit to Holland ami Gei -
many lasting neai'ly three years, returning from which attention was once
more given to the store of his former employer, who was very anxious
that the young man should give over wandering and remain permanent! y
connected with his establishment. But William was not content with
merely selling ribbons, laces, needles and pins behind a shopkeeper's
counter. His ambition reached higher, and he was next found, some
eighteen months after arriving from the continent, preparing the founda-
tion of a professional success in the police line of duty with William
Robinson, Chief Inspector of Police at Cambridge. Even here he
remained only long enough to distinguish himself as an energetic, hard-
working officer, and, upon receiving a handsome offer to revisit the con-
tinent, much against the wishes of Inspector Robinson, he went once
more from home. Returning to England, in 1850, Mr. Turtle's former
employer, Mr. Davis, gave him no opportunity to refuse, acceding to all
his modest demands, and the young man re-entered the dry goods house,
and there continued until he made up his mind to emigrate to America,
a year or so later.
Passing over much that might be found interesting in this imperfect
history, it may be said that William Turtle came to Chicago when just
past his twenty-second year, and settling at Northfield, C»ok county,
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 567
continued his residence there during seven years, engaging in the general
provision business. For some years he was a popular officer in that part
of Cook county, filling the responsible position of town collector the
very first year after becoming naturalized, under County Treasurer
Augustus Boyington, having defeated his competitor, Sterling Sherman,
Esq. This place, with that of deputy postmaster and constable, Mr.
Turtle retained until 1861, when he disposed of his stock in trade and
removed to Chicago, where he quickly enrolled himself in the ranks of
the municipal police. In less than a quarter of a year he was promoted
to the position of Sergeant; in three months more to that of Captain of
the West Division Police, which rank he acceptably held until 1864,
when he was made Superintendent of Police, under the regime of the
Board of Police, then controlling the destinies of the guardians of public
life and property in this part of Illinois, Honorable Frank Sherman,
Mayor. About this time the Captain became a member of Hesperia
Lodge Free and Accepted Masons. It has not transpired that he ever
connected himself with any particular congregation, though eminently
charitable — which, if not religious, is the next thing to godliness — and
given to the reading of sermons and practicing the precepts of the
Mother Church of England, which he naturally considers the acme of
all that is good and worth preservation among sects, he is possibly as
good a Christian as many who are bound by church tenets and regula-
tions.
The Captain has been eminently happy in the married relation. He
was united to Miss Sarah Morrison Wilson, May 24th, 1851, at Wey-
mouth, England. Mrs. Turtle's father was one of the oldest commanders
in the British Navy, and only closed a most brilliant career some years
since. But one child remains of this union, his daughter, Julia, now the
wife of N. B. Hubbard, Captain and Mrs. Turtle having buried five,
all of whom were born in the United States.
It is not expected in this connection that we should speak at any
great length of Captain Turtle's success in his chosen profession, since
the date of his withdrawal from the regular force in 1866, as the news-
papers have generally chronicled his principal movements as a private
•detective and the principal of one of the largest and most powerful or-
ganizations of the kind in the world. Suffice it that, previous to the
great fire, the Captain had amassed a handsome competence, nearly all
•of which was swept away by the besom of destruction which bereft so
many households and left only desolation in its trail. He was soon up
and doing again, and, while his handsome suit of apartments over the
State Saving Institution were no more, all of his books and papers the
prey of the devouring flames, he started an office at 135 West Randolph
street, where he continued to transact police business until the removal
to number 118 East Lake street, and it was not long before business be-
gan to flow in again. He continued at this locality until May, 1881,
when he secured fine offices in the United States Express building, num-
568 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
bers 87 and 89 East Washington Street, where he now is. In an article of
this character it would be simply impossible to relate at any considerable
length the history of a tithe of the operations in which Captain Turtle's
talents have been in requisition. One of the first of these, however, is
known as the great American Express robbery, which happened in the
Fall of 1865, while Captain Turtle was still Superintendent of Chicago
Police, and in which the corporation named lost forty-one thousand dol-
lars by a successful scheme set up by bold and experienced depredators.
In the short space of eighteen hours following the commission of the
crime the Captain and his officers had recovered every dollar of the
money, and were putting the irons upon the thieves, who were sub-
sequently punished. The express company, in recompense for efficient
service, made Captain Turtle a present of five thousand dollars, and sent
to him an appropriately worded and handsomely designed testimonial in
writing, which for some years hung in the detective's private office, the
admiration of all visitors aTid the pride of its possessor. It is not fulsome
praise to say that for celerity and success this arrest has not its parallel
in the history of crime in America.
There are many in the West who can recall the attempted fraud
upon the ^Etna Life Insurance Company, of Rainforth, Fuller and Kim-
ball, in which Captain Turtle 'figured soon after establishing himself as
an independent'detective at numbers 80 and 82 LaSalle Street. The
prize for which the swindlers fought in this matter was included in a
policy for thirteen thousand dollars, which had been taken out upon
Rainforth's life. Rainforth was supposed to have died. Six dead
bodies were purchased in Michigan. At last one corpse was secured, its
hair and beard trimmed, which in general appearance resembled that of
the pretended lamented; an inquest was held in due course by Coroner
Wagner; the cadaver was buried, and Rainforth was no more — at least
he had disappeared. The officers of the ^Etna Company suspected all
was not as it should be, and engaged Captain Turtle to explain the mys-
tery, for mystery there surely was in connection with the case. Learn-
ing the true character of the men, it did not take the detective long to.
arrive at the conclusion that a fraud of the most palpable sort had been
perpetrated. In less than two weeks this deduction was verified by the
arrest, in New York, of the identical Rainforth supposed to have been
peacefully resting under the sod in Graceland cemetery, and his sudden
production in the very court — Judge Bradwell's — in this city, before which
his own "last will and testament," disposing of his ill-gotten gains in
prospective, was exhibited by his expectant heirs for probate. As no-
actual crime, under the statute, had been committed, higher than con-
spiracy, Fuller, Rainforth and Kimball were sentenced one year each
in the county jail nominally for contempt of court. It was a romantic and
interesting episode in detective experience, only the bare skeleton of
which can be produced in these pages. Its successful result, however>
added to the already extended renown of the private detective agency of
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 569
William Turtle, and caused many victims of similar frauds to commit their
operations to its charge.
In 1869 a murder was committed at St. Charles, Minnesota, the vic-
tim being a German, named Ableitner, a farmer of good standing in the
community. The reception by this man a few days previously of a pay-
ment of four thousand dollars in gold, was the fact stimulating the assas-
sins to the performance of the cowardly act. Such a crime could not be
borne in patience by the honest Minnesotians, and they determined that
the perpetrator, if possible, should be brought to punishment. To this
end Captain Turtle's agency was employed, Superintendent William
Beck, of Milwaukee, having recommended such a procedure, and the
detectives were placed upon the trail of the murderers. A man by the
name of Staley had been arrested and left in the custody of one Whit-
man some two weeks before Captain Turtle commenced work. At the
preliminary examination Staley was discharged. Soon thereafter he,
with Whitman, then suspected of complicity, made a sudden disappear-
ance from their usual haunts in and about St. Charles, and their where-
abouts could not be learned. Turtle's operatives noticed that, a little
later, Mrs. Whitman packed up her things and took her departure from
St. Charles, but she fled not alone. One of those useful and ubiquitous
gentlemen called professionally " shadows," left on the same train and
kept her in sight. She paused at Rochester, New York, and there
remained with relatives, but still no husband came to the front. The
United States' mail, however, gave a clue. Mrs. Whitman received let-
ters from a certain place in Michigan. To that point the detectives went
and easily captured Whitman, who was brought at once to Chicago.
After a little judicious questioning he was induced to tell what he knew
of the killing of farmer Ableitner, which was considerable. It implicat-
ed Staley, as well as a man by the name of Kincaid, whose likeness now
adorns the Captain's rogue's gallery, and the original of which is still
wanted in three, states for as many murders, the author of which he is
known to be. Three weeks elapsed before a trace leading to Staley
could be found, but it was discovered, and he was followed to the Black
River pineries, Wisconsin, and found in a log shanty, sleeping soundly
and supposing himself safe from the minions of the law, said "never to
sleep." His arrest was accomplished through the aid of another gang
of woodsmen, all of whom turned out to assist. When the hut was ap-
proached every chopper inside was ordered to arise and show himself at
the door. Staley was the last one to come out, and before he had time
to draw a weapon the cold iron was encircling his unwilling wrists.
When he saw that persistence in falsehood was useless, Staley confessed
his part in the murder, and he, as well as Whitman, if yet alive, are
working for the State of Minnesota, at Stillwater, under life sentences.
Turtle's agency thus gained fresh laurels in the Northwest. Another im-
portant operation, in which the Captain was wrongfully charged with
kidnapping, was that of John Blair, an English embezzler who was
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
returned to the British authorities by Captain Turtle in person. Then
came the Anchor Line embezzlement, the criminal being sent to Sing
Sing for five years; the Robinson case, in Lake Zurich, and later the
Allen murder, at Sandwich, De Kalb county, for which William Thom-
as is now serving out a seventeen year sentence at Joliet. Hundreds of
equally important operations must be omitted for lack of space.
JOHN W. STEWART.
John W. Stewart was born at Vincennes, Indiana, in the year 1822,
and is of Scotch descent although three generations of the family were
born in this country. His father, Reverend John Stewart,was born in 1795,
and was from early life an itinerant Methodist minister, being for fifty
consecutive years stationed in the Ohio conference at different points.
In consequence of the itineracy of his father, the early childhood of the son
was spent in various places, but being naturally quick of perception and
anxious to fit himself for the active duties of life, at the early age of
twelve years, he earnestly solicited the privilege of learning the art
of printing, and upon securing his father's consent, he entered the office
of the TIMES at Troy, Ohio, where he remained two years, gaining
much practical knowledge and laying the foundation for his subsequent
useful and active life. He next entered the preparatory department of the
Ohio University at Athens, Ohio, and subsequently entered Augusta
College, Kentucky, where he was a student for three years. In the
Winter of 1840-41, he obtained permission of his parents to come into
the great and undeveloped Northwest. Arriving at Prairie du Chien
bv steamer, via the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, about the first of March
1841, he immediately found new friends at Lancaster in Grant county,
Wisconsin, and entered the office of Messrs. Barber & Dewey for the
purpose of studying law, and he was appointed Deputy Clerk of the United
States District Court by Chief Justice Dunn, then holding court at Lan-
caster. Soon after this he was appointed Postmaster of that place, which
office he held one year, when he located at Monroe, Green county, Wis-
consin. Here he was admitted to the bar, practicing his profession in a
small way for many years. He also commenced in this place, in May
1851, the publication of a weekly newspaper, THE MONROE SENTINEL,
which he disposed of, however, before the close of the first volume. This
paper has continued to be published up to the present time, and is one
of the leading Republican journals in Wisconsin.
Finally outside speculations in lands and building engrossing his atten-
tion, together with a distaste for close office labor, induced him to give
up his practice pretty much altogether. During the few following years,
however, he was engaged occasionally in political ventures, having fre-
quently enjoyed the confidence of his fellow citizens, whenever he was
disposed to accept the same. In 1846, at the age of twenty-four, he
572 CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
was elected in the large old district composed of Dane, Green and Sauk
counties, to the Territorial legislature, and was elected again to the suc-
ceeding and last Territorial legislature as a Whig, in a district that was
largely Democratic. In 1860, he was elected to the Senate of the State,
and was an influential and active participator in the passage of the initial
war legislation. About this time, too, he was elected on joint ballot of
the legislature, a Regent of the State University for six years.
Mr. Stewart has always manifested the utmost willingness and even
eagerness to serve the interests of the community of which he was a part,
and while his business ability has enabled him to make many of his
ventures profitable to himself, this has not always been the principal
object of his undertakings. Up to 1860, he was quarter owner of the old
State Bank of Monroe, and when the national banking law took effect,
he became an original stockholder in the Second National Bank of Free-
port, Illinois.
Immediately after the commencement of the war, he, together with
two other gentlemen, .was commissioned by President Lincoln, Commis-
sioner of Allotment for the State of Wisconsin, and in the performance
of his official duties he visited the greater part of the Wisconsin regi-
ments in the United States army in the East, West and South, which
continued for something more than a year. Mr. Stewart lived in Wis-
consin for some twenty-nine years, and is in the enjoyment of many
testimonials that he retains the confidence of all with whom he associated
financially and politically during that time.
In the Winter of 1869-70, he removed to Chicago, where he had
become somewhat interested sometime before, and has become a prom-
inent and substantial citizen here. In the Spring of 1876, without his-
solicitation, and contrary to his inclination, he was takiin up by some
enthusiastic friends and neighbors for Alderman in the Fourth Ward,
and elected, serving with acknowledged ability and success as an active
member of the Reform City Council during the term of Mayor Heath.
Among the measures originated by him were the abolition and reorgan-
ization of the Board of Public Works and the Health Department of
the city, and the initial measures for building the City Hall. In the
Fall of 1878, he was elected to the office of County Commissioner of
Cook countv, from the city district, by an official majority of 7,796, which
office he still holds. He was Chairman of the County Board in 1879-80.
Mr. Stewart was a Whig of the Henry Clay school before the organi-
zation of the Republican party, of which he has been a member ever
since, having several times been one of the State Central Committee of
each of these parties in Wisconsin.
Mr. Stewart is modest, unassuming, conservative, conscientious and
clear in pursuing the line of any duty devolving upon him, always willing
to concede the credit to others for the measures or objects he aids to
accomplish. In his home he is the same genial gentleman that he is to-
the world; and his family circle, consisting of a wife — whose maiden
CHICAGO AND ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS. 573
name was Armida A. Bowen, and whom he married in 1845 — one son
two daughters, presents conclusive evidence of the solid comfort and hap-
piness to be enjoyed in the possession of a well-appointed and virtuous
home.
CONTENTS.
Page
CHAPTER I.
Introduction 5 — 8
CHAPTER II.,
Old Chicago 9 — 13
CHAPTER III.
Chicago from 1804 to 1825 14 — 17
CHAPTER IV.
The Town of Chicago 18 — 25
CHAPTER V.
The City of Chicago 26 — 33
CHAPTER VI.
Growth in Population and Commerce 51 — 58
CHAPTER VII.
Railroads So — 84
CHAPTER VIII.
Churches 89 — 93
CHAPTER IX.
Public Schools 101 — 121
CHAPTER X.
Public Parks 135 — 144
CHAPTER XI.
Manufactures 145 — 159
CHAPTER XII.
The Great Fire 187—191
CHAPTER XIII.
Prominent Buildings Destroyed and Individual Losses 192 — 194
CHAPTER XIV.
After the Fire 195 — 199
CHAPTEH XV.
Chicago and the Rebellion of 1861 205 — 210
CHAPTER XVI.
Medical Colleges and Profession 213 — 222
CHAPTER XVII.
The Bench and Legal Profession 243 — 249
CONTENTS.
Page.
CHAPTER XVIII.
The Fire of 1874 279—284
CHAPTER XIX.
Chicago Journalism 285 — 294
CHAPTER XX.
Relief and Aid Society 321—326
CHAPTER XXL
Places of Amusement 327 — 329
CHAPTER XXII-
Notable Events of a National Character 337 — 343
CHAPTER XXIII.
The Leading Secret Societies 344 — 355
CHAPTER XXIV.
The Union Stock Yards 356 — 366
CHAPTER XXV.
First Chicago Directory 374 — 380
CHAPTER XXVI.
Grain Elevators 381 — 386
CHAPTER XXVII.
Early Settlers 387 — 397
CHAPTER XXVIII.
A Prophecy 398 — 403
CHAPTER XXIX.
Public Charities 404 — 412
CHAPTER XXX.
Poems Dedicated to Chicago 413 — 418
CHAPTER XXXI.
Sporting Reminiscences 419 — 423
CHAPTER XXXII.
The Steam Towing Business 424 — 439
CHAPTER XXXIII.
The Lady Elgin Disaster 440 — 445
CHAPTER XXXIV.
Gymnastics in Chicago 446 — 451
CHAPTER XXXV.
Chicago Historical Society 452 — 454
CHAPTER XXXVI.
The Dry Goods Trade 455 — 460
CHAPTER XXXVII.
Terrible Balloon Catastrophe 468 — 475
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
The Jews of Chicago 476 — 481
CHAPTER XXXIX.
Centennial Tribute to Chicago 482 — 488
CONTENTS.
Page.
CHAPTER XL.
Chicago Type Foundry. — How Type is Made 489 — 494
CHAPTER XLI.
The Dead 498 — 5 1 1
CHAPTER XLII.
Chicago Memorial Building 512 — 536
CHAPTER XLIII.
Brief Biographical Sketches 549 — 554
.IN MEMORIAM.
JAMES WARD.
Born August ist, 1814.
Died July 6th, 1881.
Mr. Ward is the only one whose biography appears in this volume,
who has died since the sketch was written. His memory will long be
cherished in a community in which he spent such a useful life, and his
place among us will not readily be filled.
INDEX TO BIOGRAPHIES.
Aldrich William 211—212
Anderson Benjamin L 64 — 66
Benningall Patrick 246
Biackwell Robert S 246
Blodgett Henry W 245
Brainard Dr. Daniel 216
Bross William 300—306
Brown Ira 77 — 79
Bundy John C 310 — 313
Butterfield Justin 246
Carpenter Philo 40 — 43
Caton John D 246
Clapp William B ; 334~ 336
Collins James H 246
Collyer Robert 554
Cobb Silas B 555
Chesbrough Ellis Sylvester 556
Davis N. S., M. D 241—242
Drummond Thomas 273 — 274
Eddy H. Clarence 128 — 131
Edsall James Kirkland 250 — 253.
Farwell John B , 465 — 467
Follansbee Charles 461 — 462
Goodrich Judge 245
Goodall H. L 314—318
Goodrich Henry J 74 — 76
Grant William C 264—266
Griggs Samuel C 553
Hulbert Alvin. 549 — 551
Harmon Dr. Elijah D 214
Haverly John H 332—333
Hale Daniel H 85—88
Howland George 122 — 124
Hubbard Gurdon S 36 — 39
Hill Robert 169 — 170
INDEX TO BIOGRAPHIES.
Honsinger Emanuel, D. D. S 235 — 238
Hesing Washington 3°7— 3°9
Hooley Richard M 330 — 331
Hoyne Thomas 246
Jones Joseph Russell 556
Kedzie John Hume 67 — 70
Kimbell Martin Nelson 177 — 179
Keenan Wilson Thompson ' 370 — 371
Kern Charles ^37 — 539
Kedzie John Hume 67 — 70
Kimbell Martin Nelson 177 — 179
Keenan Wilson Thompson 370 — 37 [
Kern Charles 537—539
Lehmann E. J 185 — 186
Ludlatn Reuben M. D 223 — 227
Low Dr. James E 23 1 — 234
Marder John ^95 — 497
Maxwell Phillips Dr 215
McCormick Cyrus Hall 160 — 165
Mills Luther Laflin x. 254 — 256
Myrick Willard Franklin 48 — 50
Moore Samuel M 270 — 272
Morris Buckner S. . . . . 246
McEllroy Daniel 246
Mann Orrin L 543 — 548
McClurg Alexander 553
Ogden Wm. B 34 — 35
Olin Henry M. D 228 — 230
Palmer Potter 463 — 464
Pa ren Nicolai Harding M. D j 239 — 240
Pearson James Henry 59 — 65
Prosser Treat T 180— 181
Purington D. V 540 — 543
Pullman George M . . . . 55^
Russe.l John Kniften 562—565
Skinner Mark 557 — ^^
Shipman Dr. George 5152
Scammon John Young 245
Spring Giles 245
Scoville Hiram H 182 — 183
Scoville Hiram H. Jr ^4
Slayton Henry L ' 132 — 134
Singer Horace M 166 — 168
Stewart Hart L 71 — 73
Stewart John W 571 — 573
INDEX TO BIOGRAPHIES.
Swing David 97 — 100
Sheridan Phillip Henry 200 — 204
Storey Wilbur F - : 297 — 299
Shuman Andrew 319 — 320
Talcott Mancel 173 — 176
Thomas H. W 94—96
Trumbull Lyman 275 — 276
Turtle William 566—570
Van Osdel John M 44 — 47
Waixel Isaac 367 — 369
Ward James 125 — 127
Ward James, Memorial page 575
Waterman Arba N 257 — 259
Willett Consider H 260—263
Wilson Robert S 267 — 269
Wood John H 372—373
Walcott Dr. Alexander 214
Wilson John M 247
Wilkie Franc B 553
Wadsworth Elisha S 560—561
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